Brownsburg 6-year-old in recovery after days of hospitalization with COVID-19
BROWNSBURG, Ind. (WISH) — A Brownsburg 6-year-old is recovering after being hospitalized with COVID-19 for several days.
Her mother, Emily Roark, is sharing her story as a cautionary tale for other families.
Roark said people hear all the time that kids aren’t seriously impacted by COVID-19, but, for the past three weeks, her family has experienced an exception.
Her 6-year-old daughter, Amelia Roark, has no underlying health conditions and had never been in the hospital until last week when Roark and her husband thought they had no other choice.
Amelia’s visit came after a positive COVID-19 test, pneumonia, antibiotics, and an eight-day fever that wouldn’t break.
Roark recalled about her daughter, “Luckily, my aunt and my cousin are nurses. One works with COVID patients. So, I called her crying basically and said, ‘You know I don’t know what to do; there’s not a lot of information about what to do with kids,’ and she said, ‘I think you should just take her in. She needs IV fluids. She probably needs IV antibiotics.’”
After Amelia’s first night in the hospital, her fever broke. However, since then, her road to recovery has been rigorous.
“Basically, she was in bed for almost two weeks; couldn’t even walk from the bed to the bathroom. I had to give her a pullup, and she’s 6 years old. She’s been potty trained for years,” Roark said.
The mother said she is thankful for the vaccine and other developments over the past year, but said if people don’t use them, things won’t change.
“She said, ‘But, mommy I wore a mask all the time,’ and it makes me want to cry because I just feel like we need to, the adults need to start protecting the kids more because it’s very upsetting when she’s wearing a mask and going to school and doing all these things, and there’s still adults who are denying this is even happening,” Roark said.
Amelia hasn’t been in school for three weeks. She is slowly regaining her strength and hopes to be back in classes by Monday.