Workers at Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital move Ava Amira Rivera to a helicopter.Photo: Harris Health/ABC 13 Houston
The child, Ava Amira Rivera, has made “an amazing recovery” and is now off of a breathing machine after she was moved to another hospital in Texas, Dr. Dominic Lucia, a pediatric emergency physician and chief medical officer at Baylor Scott & White McLane Children’s Medical Center – Temple,told CNN.
“She’s no longer requiring the breathing machine. She’s actually off that right now… and she’s actually resting with mom. She’s looking great,” Lucia said.
Rivera had tested positive for COVID-19 and started having seizures, leading doctors at Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital to quickly intubate the 11-month-old. But when the hospital, which does not typically care for children, tried to move her to a pediatric hospital in Houston, there were no available beds.
On Thursday, they moved Rivera to the hospital in Temple tocontinue her care.
“Like us, a lot of the children’s hospitals are at or near capacity,” Lucia said. “That’s where we are a lot of days right now. We, fortunately, once they reached out to us, although we’re a long way away, were able to help her.”
Rivera is now in “very stable” condition, Lucia said.
“She’s doing great and on her way back to full health.”
Lucia said that pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations are far higher now than any time last year. In 2020, they had two or three cases at the most, and lately they’ve had five to seven.
“With the delta variant we certainly are seeing just more infectivity across the population that includes kids, that includes infants as well,” the doctor said. “And with this particular surge we are seeing more kids that are symptomatic that test positive, more babies that are symptomatic and test positive. We’re also hospitalizing more and a few of those unfortunately are requiring critical care services [though] that’s not particularly common.”
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As kids in the state start to head back to school — and Gov. Greg Abbott has said that he willnot require masks indoors, goingagainst advice from the Centers for Disease Control— Lucia is urging eligible people to get vaccinated andprotect the kids who can’t.
“We’re worried as schools begin to start up and the fact that kids are going to be together again, we’re happy about,” he said. “But we certainly hope that that’s done in a thoughtful way and we’re in support of the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines of kids going back to school wearing masks.”
source: people.com
