A mum has spoken of her anguish after her five-month-old baby daughter developed a rare inflammatory disease linked to coronavirus.
Leia Godwin has been forced to spend the last three weeks in hospital after doctors diagnosed her with a condition similar to Kawasaki disease.
Health care professionals warned in April it could be a possible reaction in children to coronavirus, with youngsters under the age of five particularly vulnerable.
The illness may be caused by coronavirus but experts are unsure as the reaction appears to be very rare, reports WalesOnline.
Children have presented to hospitals across the UK with symptoms related to a hyper-inflammatory state and investigations are ongoing to learn more about the rare condition.
Mum Hannah Godwin, 35, from Risca, Wales, was not worried when her five-month-old daughter, Leia, recorded a high temperature on Saturday April 25 putting it down to the hot weather.
Leia had broken out in a slight rash which Hannah put down to a slight itch or allergy.
Hannah contacted 111 and was told to take Leia to the out of hours service at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport.
She said: "When we got to out of hours, her temperature had spiked so she was referred to the children's A&E.
"First of all , they were really concerned with her temperature. They didn't really know what the rash was.
"When she was there a nurse and a doctor examined her and weren't worried about the rash and were happy the temp was responding to calpol.
"Then the senior doctor did a check over and found three or four tiny petechiae, which is the pin prick rashes that don't disappear under pressure.
"So they put her straight on antibiotics in case it was sepsis or meningitis," explained 35-year-old Hannah.
After her first day in hospital, Leia's condition deteriorated.
A rash covered her whole body, her high temperature remained and she had developed a chesty cough, tonsilitis and tachycardia.
Hannah said she was sent for x-rays which came back clear before Leia was moved to the high dependency unit.
At this point, coronavirus had not even entered mum Hannah's mind as the family, including dad Simon Godwin, older sisters Nia, 12 and Gracie, nine, along with twin sister Thea had been isolating for seven weeks due to Simon and Gracie having a heart condition.
Due to the genetic heart condition shared by Simon and Gracie, both Thea and Leia had previously undergone scans and checks.
However, by late April, reports of a suspected severe illness linked with coronavirus in children had started to emerge.
Hannah had read about the coronavirus linked illness, but dismissed it as being a possibility for Leia due to her not coming into contact with anyone other than her family.
Another reason why Hannah dismissed this as a possibility was due to Leia testing negative for coronavirus twice on admittance to hospital.
However, due to Leia's symptoms, it was treated as if she had coronaviurus and doctors were increasingly concerned for her welfare and decided to transfer her to the Noah's Ark Hospital in Cardiff where she was put on critical care for a few days, receiving high flow oxygen through her nose.
The other symptoms Leia experienced included swollen feet, which Hannah was told were a marker for Kawasaki disease.
She said the doctors were reluctant to label it as Kawasaki disease despite Leia experiencing a similar rash and swollen feet common to the disease, as she was not responding to the usual treatment.
Other symptoms of Kawasaki, including skin peeling were also missing.
Hannah said doctors were leaning towards a suspected diagnosis of inflammatory syndrome linked with Covid-19.
"When doctors kept using the term 'linked to coronavirus' to me I was getting frustrated when she's never had it.
"But they did an antibodies test, which tested if she has ever had coronavirus, and it was the first result to come back positive, meaning at some point in the last five months she has had it but was asymptomatic."
Since the antibody test confirmed Leia's link with Covid-19 on May 6, Hannah said her condition has been up and down. She is no longer in intensive care and Hannah has been allowed to give her oral medication.
But an echocardiogram carried out on Leia's heart showed her left artery is inflamed, and the artery on the right appears to have an aneurysm, which she is now receiving two injections of blood thinners a day to prevent any clotting.
Hannah said this will be for the foreseeable future and will mean she cannot be discharged from hospital yet.
"It is really hard to take in everything the doctors say. The two scary things you don't want to even think about are heart attacks and blood clots. When the doctor said that I just switched off," said Hannah.
Husband Simon has also spent time with Leia at the hospital so the couple can spend time equally with all four of their children.
Leia's heart is not currently responding to treatment to reduce the enlarged artery.
"They said regular Kawasaki should have responded to treatment so they're not sure if this is to do with Covid-19 link or not. It is an unknown entity and like everything with Leia it is watch and wait.
"She is fine in herself, you wouldn't know she was ill, and she's as strong as it gets so I'm sure we're just waiting it out."
Doctors have requested consent for genetic testing to understand why Leia's body has reacted like this.
They have also requested to take blood from Thea to see if she has had Covid-19 and to understand why she hasn't reacted in the same way.
Leia has now been in hospital for two and a half weeks and is free of the rash but is stillbeing monitored by medics.
Hannah has been documenting Leia's time in hospital on a Facebook page called Easy as one, two four?.
She wants to encourage other parents to seek help from doctors if they think anything is wrong with their children.
A spokesman for Public Health Wales said investigations were ongoing to learn more about the rare condition.
They said: "In recent weeks, paediatricians and paediatric intensive care specialists have identified a small number of children presenting to hospitals across the UK with signs of circulatory shock and a hyper-inflammatory state.
"Some children presented with symptoms similar to toxic shock syndrome and others had symptoms consistent with Kawasaki Disease, a rare inflammatory condition.
"On May 1, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health issued a health briefing warning of a possible link with these hyper-inflammatory syndromes and SARS-CoV-2.
"Also on 1 May, Public Health Wales issued a briefing note to all health boards in Wales to raise awareness of this condition and offer management advice to clinicians in the event they are presented with such a case.
“Investigations by The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, as well as clinicians from across the UK, are ongoing to learn more about this rare condition.“
