A mother has told how her six-year-old daughter nearly died after what she thought was chicken pox turned out to be a reaction to Covid that she did not know she had.
Millie Denvers, from Steyning, West Sussex, started to feel unwell on the evening of Saturday December 12 after three pupils in her class had chicken pox.
The six-year-old had a few spots, looked pale, started vomiting and had a fever with a temperature of 39.9 degrees.
The following Monday her temperature was back to normal but she was sleepy, not eating, suffering from sickness and crying in pain at night.
Mother-of-three Elizabeth Denver, 36, was concerned that the spots, she believed were chicken pox, were not blistering and called her GP on Tuesday morning.
Mrs Denver was advised to call for an ambulance and a paramedic advised to take Millie into hospital as there was a wait for an ambulance.
Millie was admitted to Worthing hospital around midday and transferred in an induced coma to Southampton hospital around 9pm on Tuesday December 15.
She remained in the coma for two days and her mother and father Glen Denver, 40, were told by staff at Worthing hospital that Millie had a condition called PIMS-TS.
The parents were told that the condition was a reaction to Covid-19 which she must have carried a couple of weeks before with no symptoms.
Before they put her in the coma Glen asked if she could die, and the nurse said it wasn’t looking good but couldn’t actually say.
‘We had no idea she had carried Covid. Until she got sick on Saturday 12 she had been completely normal and she’s a really active little girl.
‘She had been going to school and doing everything she usually did.
‘All her symptoms were consistent with chicken pox, one of her sisters vomits whenever she has a temperature, but when the spots didn’t start blistering it worried me.
‘She was in so much pain in the car you couldn’t touch her. I had to carry her into the hospital and hold her up because she had gone all floppy.’
Her tongue had gone a thick white colour shortly before they arrived at the hospital, which is usually consistent with a throat infection, but her throat was fine.
Blood tests revealed Millie’s liver and kidneys were struggling and she was on fluids within a couple hours of arriving.
The six-year-old was home for Christmas on Wednesday 23rd December and has recovered quickly and fully with the help of physiotherapy