7-year-old girl admitted to ICU for MIS-C after contracting coronavirus

HERRIMAN, Utah (ABC4 News) – Andrew and Caitlin Maurer are warning other parents after their 7-year-old daughter experienced complications from COVID-19.

They said they didn’t know Grace had the virus at first but her symptoms started to get worse. She had labored breathing and a fever.

“She was so completely out of it,” said her mother Caitlin.

They took Grace to urgent care to get fluids and then to the family pediatrician.

They were told it was possibly a kidney infection or a urinary tract infection. But still, Grace’s condition wasn’t improving and the diagnosis didn’t seem right.

“If you would barely touch her, she would scream in pain,” said Caitlin.

“And then her eyes starting bulging. That’s when I knew hey we need to go,” she added.

They took Grace to the emergency room. She was then transferred to the ICU.

“I just stayed up all night, and just prayed and cried,” said Andrew.

After a battery of tests, doctors said Grace didn’t currently have COVID. But — unbeknownst to mom and dad — it appeared Grace did in fact have COVID-19 at some point. She must have been asymptomatic, doctors told her parents.

Test results indicated that Grace had a condition called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, also known as MIS-C.

Read the CDC information about MIS-C here

“I used to be on the whole page of masks don’t do anything, this is just the flu. Kids don’t get sick from COVID,” said Andrew. “And I gotta tell ya — I’ve been completely humbled.”

After days in the hospital, Grace recovered, though she was hospitalized again soon after with meningitis as a result of her hospital stay.

Her heart, which swelled during her sickness, is now a source of concern for doctors and her parents. So they’ve advised them not to let Grace do physical activity for a while.

“The scary part is, we still don’t know how it’s going to affect her,” said Andrew. “I don’t know what we would’ve done if she didn’t make it.”

Friends have set up a GoFundMe page to help the family after Grace’s hospital stay.