A young boy who had Covid-19 has since been unable to eat or drink properly due to everything tasting 'like poo and rotten eggs'.
Dawn Kafi, from Old Swan, said her 11-year-old son Malisse had tested positive for Covid-19 on September 20 and began his 10 days isolation.
However, despite initially having no symptoms and feeling quite well, Malisse suddenly lost his taste and smell and everything was making him vomit.
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Dawn told the ECHO : "He started saying food was off and it continued. I cooked all his favourite foods but he said everything smelt.
"He said food tasted like sewage and poo and water tasted like rotten eggs and he would keep throwing up.
"It wasn't just food. It was supermarkets, the smell of cars going past it all made him retch. I didn't know what to do or what it was.
"I stopped cooking so there were no unpleasant smells in the air and we tried everything to get him to eat.
"He'd been really good with Covid, he had no symptoms and he always wore his mask because his brother is severely disabled and he kept everyone safe, but all of a sudden he just stopped eating.
"He would look at it and start gagging. He couldn't cope with the smells and physically couldn't eat. We couldn't go to the supermarket, it was horrendous."
Dawn said after his isolation period and worried for her son who was 'tired and cold all the time', she contacted ENT at Alder Hey who gave a diagnosis of parosmia and given a steroid nasal spray.
However, after trying everything to get her son to eat, from smaller portions to pegs on his nose and nasal sprays, Malisse continued to deteriorate.
On October 21 he was taken to Alder Hey's A&E department and countless blood tests were undertaken but still the family was told nothing seemed to be immediately wrong.
Dawn said her son continued to not eat and was really poorly but was eventually discharged from ENT.
She told the ECHO that on November 1, her son became so poorly that he could not stand properly and was slurring his words, that he was taken to A&E and admitted as an inpatient.
She added: "He was initially admitted for dehydration not the fact he hadn't eaten a morsel of food for weeks.
"He was literally eating nothing and he still isn't eating now.
"He was initially put on IV fluids but that was taken out the next day and he's just been deteriorating every day. He lost 2kg of weight in the space of two days and now weighs 42kg despite always being a chunky monkey.
"He's lost a significant amount of weight, a huge amount.
"He was in plus size uniform and just loved his food. Now, he can't even stand up and can't hold his own head up, he's so ill and his eyes are all sunken in and black. I don't know how that was allowed to happen."
Dawn went on to say: "We had never heard of the condition before. Doctors didn't know what Parosmia was either. There is a Facebook forum with over 29k people all suffering from parosmia.
"Fifth Sense (charity) say they get calls every day from people all over saying they have this and no-one will help them and no-one understands it.
"I have only come across one doctor in A&E and one nurse who knows what parosmia is. I kept asking on the ward why it’s never spoken about."
Dawn said it was 'heart-breaking' seeing her son deteriorate and was worried at one point 'he would die' if action was not taken.
After ten days in the hospital and no improvement, a decision was made to put Malisse on an NG tube, almost 50 days after the initial concern.
Dawn said: "When he was admitted to the ward there was a plan in place that he would be treated like he had anorexia, even though he hadn't but we still had to wait for the NG tube."
Dawn said because his bloods and sats were good, doctors said there was no major cause for concern but her son continued to refuse food which became 'traumatic'.
The NHS website states that a change in taste and smell can be caused by a viral infection, which Dawn says came after Malisse's positive Covid test.
Parosmia can result in strong odours and phantom smells which can become overpowering.
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