A three-year-old boy was "lifeless like a zombie" as he battled symptoms of a rare inflammatory disease that has been linked to coronavirus cases in young children.
Mum Chloe Knight, 22, said her son Freddie Merrylees suffered a rash, high fever, bloodshot eyes and a cracked mouth just days before the UK went into its Covid-19 lockdown.
He was drowsy and lost his appetite, and scans done in a hospital revealed that valves leading to his heart were swollen.
Miss Knight said doctors initially thought Freddie had a case of scarlet fever, but after taking him to Edinburgh Sick Kids Hospital three times he was diagnosed with potentially fatal Kawasaki disease.
The mum said she later came down with symptoms that were consistent with the new strain of coronavirus, but she and her son were not tested for it.
Has your child been diagnosed with Kawasaki disease recently? Email webnews@mirror.co.uk.
Miss Knight told the Edinburgh Evening News that she took Freddie to see a GP on March 12 after he developed a rash and it was thought that he had scarlet fever.
She said his symptoms worsened despite taking medication and she took him to the hospital, but was told his condition would improve.
She took him back to the hospital after he had a nose bleed, but his symptoms were again put down to scarlet fever, she said.
Miss Knight said: “I started crying because I felt like it was something a lot more. He was just lifeless, like a zombie, there was nothing there. Anyone who knows Freddie would know he’s the most hyper little boy – something was wrong.”
The next day, his face had broken out in a rash, he was in pain and he was having trouble swallowing.
Ms Knight said her son was admitted to Edinburgh Sick Kids Hospital on March 16 during the "worst week of my life".
The discovery of a heart murmur led to scans that revealed the swollen valves leading to his heart, said Miss Knight.
Freddie was in the hospital for five days and has been taking medication at home since he was discharged.
His mum said: “I can’t praise the doctors and nurses at the Sick Kids Hospital enough, they were brilliant with Freddie and made his experience there that much better.”
Miss Knight said she developed Covid-19 symptoms including a cough, fever and loss of taste and smell.
Also known as mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome, Kawasaki disease causes the blood vessels to become inflamed and swollen.
It mainly affects children under five and causes heart complications in about 25 per cent of patients.
If the condition goes untreated, the complications can be fatal in about two to three per cent of cases, the NHS said.
British and Italian doctors are investigating a possible link between Covid-19 and clusters of severe inflammatory disease among children arriving in hospitals with high fevers and swollen arteries.
Several pathogens, including some human coronaviruses, have been suggested as a possible trigger for the disease, according to a doctor's report in the US medical journal Hospital Pediatric.
Ms Knight, from Edinburgh, shared her son's story after the UK Paediatric Intensive Care Society tweeted an alert it said was from NHS England.
The tweet said in the "last three weeks, there has been an apparent rise in the number of children of all ages presenting with a multi-system inflammatory state requiring intensive care across London and also in other regions of the UK".
It said the effects had been seen in both children with and without coronavirus but there was evidence that some patients had had coronavirus previously.
According to the alert, children display signs similar to toxic shock syndrome and have blood markers in line with severe Covid-19 in kids.
They may also have abdominal pain and symptoms of inflammation around the heart.
The alert talks about atypical Kawasaki disease.
NHS England stressed there was no confirmed connection between Kawasaki-related diseases and Covid-19.
Professor Simon Kenny, the NHS' national clinical director for children and young people, said: "Thankfully Kawasaki-like diseases are very rare, as currently are serious complications in children related to Covid-19, but it is important that clinicians are made aware of any potential emerging links so that they are able to give children and young people the right care fast.
"The advice to parents remains the same: If you are worried about your child for whatever reason, contact NHS 111 or your family doctor for urgent advice, or 999 in an emergency, and if a professional tells you to go to hospital, please go to hospital."
Around eight in every 100,000 children develop Kawasaki disease in the UK each year, the NHS said.
About 72 per cent of patients are under five and the condition is 1.5 times more common on boys than girls.
