‘We do not have answers’
Kristen Jordan Shamus and Karen Weintraub – | USA TODAY – in the D&C on 9/20/21 on page A1
Thirteen-year-old Rose Lehane Tureen’s debilitating headache has lasted a year and a half.
• At 5 months old, Madelynn Birchmeier stopped reaching developmental milestones. She couldn’t hold a bottle and didn’t have the strength to crawl or sit up on her own. Now a year old, she’s undergoing therapy with hopes she’ll catch up.
• For 7-year-old Waylon Wehrle, complications from COVID- 19 stole his memory along with his ability to walk and talk. After months in hospitals and rehab, he has slowly improved but will have diabetes the rest of his life.
• The virus heightened 14-year-old Nicaja Taylor’s anxiety and asthma and also may have triggered diabetes.
• Thirteen-year-old Matthew Burris wasn’t very sick at first, but weeks after his infection he couldn’t run as hard or as fast. One day in the spring, he collapsed on a soccer field, unable to get enough air.
• They are just a few of the children in the U.S. suffering long-term complications from COVID-19.
Recovery for most kids infected with the virus is swift and the illness is mild. But about 2% to 3%, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky estimated, struggle with an array of puzzling and sometimes crippling symptoms that stretch on for weeks or months with no explanation and no clear end date.