Healthy boy, 12, forced to use a wheelchair after hellish battle with LONG ... trends now
A seventh grader has shared his hellish battle with long Covid - which has left him wheelchair-bound and on dozens of meds.
Theo Huot de Saint-Albin, from Atlanta, Georgia, was 12 and otherwise completely healthy when he caught the virus in July 2020 for the first time.
His symptoms, which soon became debilitating, came on 'directly after' his first Covid infection, and his symptoms have not improved much since then.
He said he has suffered from constant migraines for four years, fatigue so bad he has a hard time leaving the couch, and pain so bad he has been confined to a wheelchair at times.
Theo told Good Morning America: ‘Sometimes it's hard to get people to believe you as well because they can empathize with something they know is there. “Oh, you have a broken leg, I can see that. Wow, you can't walk. That must be tough.” But, your head hurts? “I don't see a big bulge on your head. I don't see bandages wrapped around it.”’
![Theo [shown] was misdiagnosed with Lyme disease, symptoms of which can look like long Covid. It took about two years for Theo to get the right diagnosis in 2022](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/10/14/83461077-13292829-image-a-2_1712755024462.jpg)
Theo [shown] was misdiagnosed with Lyme disease, symptoms of which can look like long Covid. It took about two years for Theo to get the right diagnosis in 2022
Theo and his mother were relieved to finally get his diagnosis, which was initially said to be lyme disease
He added: ‘For me, I have chronic migraines ... it doesn't mean the migraine is terrible every day. It's very unpredictable. It goes in waves. But it's always there. It never leaves.
Theo went on to contract Covid another three times, but his long Covid symptoms were worse than the infections themselves.
Long Covid has affected between 18 and 23 million Americans, some of whom have experienced the symptoms of long-covid, including brain fog and fatigue, years after coming down with the virus.
Covid infections are rarely severe in children, and long Covid in that population has not been seen nearly as often as it has been in adults.
Theo and his mother Meredith Eubanks said they couldn't even remember how many doctors they saw looking for answers over the past four years. They were repeatedly told by doctors that it was not a case of Long Covid, which is relatively rare in kids.
Theo and his mother traveled 600 miles to Baltimore to meet with pediatrics psychologist Dr Laura Malone, according to Good Morning America.
Dr Malone had established the Pediatric Post-COVID-19 Rehabilitation Clinic at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, a children-focused health organization affiliated with Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Ms Eubanks said: ‘They were the first place we got to where they were like, 'Here's a list of symptoms, and did you have any pre-COVID, and what did you have post-COVID?'"
‘I just remember that
