‘We thought we were going to lose him for sure’: 3-year-old Missouri boy suffers coronavirus-related stroke

‘If this had been anybody over the age of 40 or 60, they would have probably had a very different outcome,’ a pediatric neurologist said

A 3-year-old boy suffers a coronavirus-related stroke (FOX 2 NOW)

A 3-year-old boy in Missouri has suffered a coronavirus-related stroke, according to his family.

Colt Parris had reportedly stopped eating and drinking last week, prompting his mother, Sara Parris, to take him to a local clinic to get tested for Covid-19. He tested negative at the time, though doctors still recommended that Colt be sent to the hospital.

Once he arrived at the University of Missouri Women's and Children's Hospital, Colt tested positive for coronavirus antibodies.

According to local reports, Colt soon lost the ability to move his right arm and right leg. His mother also observed that Colt's speech was "off."

"I went to hand him his [stuffed animal] Boo and I noticed that he didn’t use his dominate arm to grab it," Sara Parris said. "He reached over to grab his bunny and then again, I knew something else wasn’t right."

Doctors soon discovered a blockage in the boy's brain.

"The Covid diagnosis is important because we think the reason why this patient with Covid, including the child, have strokes and a variety of other problems is that they have the propensity to form clots," said neurologist Dr. Camilo Gomez.

There’s really no other case like this," said pediatric neurologist Dr Paul Carney, who told FOX 2 Now that he had seen one other case like Colt's before, except that the last child didn't survive. "If this had been anybody over the age of 40 or 60, they would have probably had a very different outcome."

Coronavirus has been linked to neurological conditions before. As FOX News points out, a July study connected Covid-19 to conditions such as stroke, delirium, nerve damage, and a rare, possibly fatal inflammatory brain condition.

Read More: Covid-19 learns from experience – unlike Boris Johnson and his crew. We are paying for their mistakes

Sara Parris told local news stations that she was unsure of where Colt would have contracted Covid-19, as she had been homeschooling their children.

"We minimized public interaction to [the] highest extent," she said. "We don’t go out and so, in our head, it can’t be Covid because we’re not around anyone."

"We thought we were going to lose him for sure," Colt's father, Tim Parris, said. "I don’t care how tough you are; you will cry. You can’t help it when it’s your 3-year-old laying there."

Fortunately, Colt is expected to recover. "We already had our Christmas," Sara Parris said. "It's sitting on the bed there in the room. I don't think we could have asked for anything more than that."