Ashley Hildebrand baby Ellie coronavirus becomes youngest child documented in the US to test positive for COVID-19 as Lexington, South Carolina mom shares story of unknown contagion.
A South Carolina mother has shared photos of her two-month-old baby daughter hooked up to a ventilator, as she becomes one of the youngest in the US to become infected with novel coronavirus.
Ashley Hildebrand of Lexington posted pictures of Ellie on her Facebook page on Sunday and confirmed that the little girl had tested positive for the deadly virus, despite showing no symptoms before suddenly falling ill.
Images show the two-month-old lying in a hospital bed sedated, with tubes up her nose and a respirator helping her breathe.
‘Soooo… Ellie has tested positive for COVID 19. Me and Sean have to self quarantine for 2 weeks without her,’ Hildebrand said in the Facebook post.
The little girl had no symptoms other than being ‘a little wheezy’ before she fell ill, Hildebrand says in another post.
The baby’s mom describes how Elle went from being ‘fine’ then ‘stopped breathing efficiently’.
‘She actually didn’t really have any symptoms beforehand. She was a little wheezy on and off for a few days, nothing alarming at all. And her lungs sounded fine Tuesday at her two month check-up,’ she said.
‘On Friday morning she had a bottle and was doing tummy time. She rolled over and she seemed very constipated. Then she screamed for a few minutes and then she stopped screaming and crying and stopped breathing efficiently. ‘
She continued: ‘We called 911, when the ambulance got there her oxygen was at 58. While in the hospital she actually got hypothermic and they said that small babies will sometimes get cold instead of a fever.’
Symptoms not adding up:
Hildebrand said medical professionals did not think the little girl had coronavirus ‘because the symptoms did not add up’ but gave her the test ‘just to be safe’ after she tested negative for several other illnesses including the flu and SARS.
‘So daddy brought us some hats with bows so we can still look cute even with all these tubes and wires. We know Ellie does NOT have RSV, the Flu, MERS, SARS, and there was a few others they ruled out as well,’ Hildebrand said in a post Saturday from her daughter’s hospital bed while they awaited the results.
‘She is being tested for COVID19 and should have the results by 9am tomorrow – they are expecting that to be negative as well. So we really dont know what she has or what caused her to go into respiratory failure yesterday.
‘Shes on a ventilator and sedatives to give her lungs time to rest. She will still semi wake up when we mess with her, and shes trying to wiggle everything off/out of her. Ellie definitely is not having this at all and is trying to fight the nurses every chance she gets, but that’s okay. It let’s us know shes still strong.’
‘After a scary few days that is every parent’s worst nightmare, little Ellie is showing signs of improving,’ Hildebrand posted.
‘They are starting to wean her off the ventilator and it should be all the way out in 1-2 more days,’ she added.
‘Then once we are confident in her breathing on her own, they will remove the NG tube and start her on bottles.
‘Once she is used to taking bottles again and is eating good we will be allowed to bring her home to stay with us for the remainder of our quarantine.’
The concerned mother said she is not getting tested for the virus but that she will be self quarantining and urged people she had been in contact with to do the same.
‘Since my daughter has it, it’s almost impossible that I DON’T have it as well,’ she said in another post.
‘I have had no symptoms and still don’t. I will be going into self quarantine for 11-14 days.
‘We aren’t sure if my quarantine technically started on Friday or not since I’ve been in quarantine with her since she was admitted. Sooooo, if I’ve seen you in the last 2 weeks, definitely get tested if you start showing any symptoms.’
Hildebrand has since discounted suggestions that Ellie contracted the virus from vaccinations.
‘We are looking into filing a VAERS [post-vaccination] report simply because it DID happen after her shots and I DO feel that it is worth having on file, but no this did not happen solely due to vaccines, IF they even had anything to do with it at all to begin with,’ the mom posted on Facebook.
‘We will also discuss further vaccines with her pediatrician. I do not need any anti-vaxxers coming at me or trying to use my child for their agendas.’
Increasing incidence of young children being infected with COVID-19 virus.
Elle’s diagnosis comes as the number of cases affecting babies is ramping up across the US, dispelling previous assumptions that young people are less affected by coronavirus.
The Florida Health Department confirmed Wednesday that a two-year-old girl and a baby boy had tested positive for coronavirus in Broward County the dailymail confirms.
The baby boy, whose exact age is not known, has become the youngest person in the state known to have the virus.
This follows the news last week that a 7-month-old baby boy in Florida becoming the youngest person to test positive last Tuesday. Herine Baron, an ER nurse at Jackson North Medical Center in Miami-Dade County, who recently tested positive for the virus, is the mother of the infant.
‘According to the doctors, they told me that for babies, they’re able to fight it off more better than an adult,’ Baron said in a YouTube video. ‘My son is asymptomatic. He’s not showing any signs that I’ve been having.’
Doctors have issued warnings that, while the elderly are most at risk from coronavirus, young people are not safe from it.
They warn the life-threatening illness may cause unusual symptoms in children, such as stomach aches, rather than the tell-tale symptoms in adults of a cough and fever.
World Health Organization chiefs have said young people are ‘not invincible’ and could end up in hospital ‘for weeks’.
