Kennedy Krieger Clinic Treats Young Patients With 'Long COVID' Who Are Still Dealing With Effects From The Virus

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Months after getting COVID-19 last November, Hannah Larson was still dealing with long-term effects from the virus.

"I was either passing out or I was really confused and kind of delirious I didn't know what was going on I started having problems walking," she said.

She had to take the semester off from school and tried to figure out what was wrong but was not getting far.

"I wasn't getting better, so I found out about Kennedy Krieger because they opened up their post-COVID clinic," Larson said.

Kennedy Krieger has one of the only clinics in the country that treats children and young adults dealing with what's known as "long COVID," when some suffer from symptoms long after the initial infection.

"Longer COVID syndrome is a problem that happens after that and has a very complex number of symptoms such as fatigue, dizziness, headaches, weakness, also things like brain fog," said Dr. Suzanne Rybczynski, Associate Chief Medical Officer at Kennedy Krieger.

The clinic helps patients through physical therapy and connects them with neurologists and physiologists to help them get better.

"It's a multi-disciplinary clinic so it's not just one doctor seeing one kid," said Rybczynski.

And doctors at the clinic have seen more cases of "long COVID" as many have started going back to school.

But many don't about it, and that's why Kennedy Krieger is now trying to get the word out about it in schools.

"We have a program that reaches out to school nursing so and provides that education so that there can be that bridge between parents kids and the school," said Rybczynski.

If you have any symptoms of "long COVID" or suspect anything, doctors at Kennedy Kreiger recommend reaching out to your child's pediatrician to see if they can start to help out your child and figure out if they might be experiencing "long COVID."