Healthy 12-year-old boy forced to use a wheelchair after a hellish battle with LONG COVID that left him with crippling pain, fatigue and a migraine that lasted four years.

A seventh grader shared his hellish battle with long Covid, which left him in a wheelchair and on dozens of medications.

Theo Huot de Saint-Albin, from Atlanta, Georgia, was 12 years old and otherwise completely healthy when he first contracted the virus in July 2020.

His symptoms, which soon became debilitating, appeared “immediately 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 intense that he has trouble getting off the couch, and pain so intense that he has at times been confined to a wheelchair.

Theo told Good Morning America: “Sometimes it’s hard to get people to believe you too because they can empathize with something they know is there.” “Oh, you have a broken leg, I can see it. Wow, you can’t walk. “That must be difficult.” But does your head hurt? “I don’t see a big lump on your head. “I don’t see any bandages around.”

He added: “For me, I have chronic migraines… that doesn’t mean the migraine is terrible every day.” It’s very unpredictable. It goes in waves. But it’s always there. It never goes away.

Theo contracted Covid three more times, but his prolonged Covid symptoms were worse than the infections themselves.

Long Covid has affected between 18 and 23 million Americans, some of whom have experienced long Covid symptoms, such as brain fog and fatigue, years after contracting the virus.

Covid infections are rarely severe in children, and long Covid in that population has not been seen as frequently as in adults.

Theo and his mother Meredith Eubanks said they couldn’t even remember how many doctors they consulted for answers over the past four years. Doctors repeatedly told them that this was not a case of long Covid, which is relatively rare in children.

Theo and his mother traveled 600 miles to Baltimore to meet with pediatric psychologist Dr. Laura Malone, according to Good Morning America.

Dr. Malone had established the Post-COVID-19 Pediatric Rehabilitation Clinic at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, a child-focused health organization affiliated with Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Ms Eubanks said: “They were the first place we came to and they said, ‘Here’s a list of symptoms, did you have any before COVID and what did you have after COVID?'”

‘I just remember that it was a great relief. It was like, ‘Oh, you know, they’re acknowledging this and it’s official, and Theo’s not alone.’

Theo was misdiagnosed with Lyme disease, the symptoms of which can resemble those of long Covid. It took about two years for Theo to get the correct diagnosis in 2022.

Theo said that some days he can only go to school for half a day and other days he can’t move beyond the couch: “There’s no real way to know how I’m going to feel.”

He also suffers from symptoms such as muscle pain, extreme fatigue and mental confusion, which has sometimes left him in a wheelchair.

Theo was also diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, which is triggered when a person stands up and the heart rate increases, causing dizziness, fainting and tachycardia, which are relieved by lying down again.

Long Covid is a constellation of symptoms that appear weeks and can last years after infection. The exact cause is not fully understood, but is believed to be the result of persistent inflammation, immune system disturbances, organ damage, and possible reactivation of the virus in the body.

Dr Malone said: “Most children can have a relatively mild infection and then develop long-term sequelae.” So it took a little while for him to recognize it and for patients to seek care, both from their primary care doctors and from clinics like ours.”

“We see that there can be a lot of resilience in children and therefore, even though they may sometimes have the symptoms, they may not always tell their family or doctors, but rather they simply try to manage the symptoms, and Only when it becomes intolerable does it sometimes require further medical attention.

There is no diagnostic test for long Covid and doctors can usually only treat symptoms with medication, physiotherapy and counselling.

The main goal is to restore the child’s ability to go to school and maintain friendships.

Dr. Malone said, “One of our main goals is to try to provide accommodations to get kids back into school, but meet them where they are, because they may not be able to take a full course load or they may not be able to make it through the full day.” of classes.

“But there are still benefits if they can work for an hour and gradually increase it over time so they get back into that kind of routine and the social aspects of school and the educational aspects.”

The condition, which can cause depression and anxiety, can exacerbate a pre-existing mental illness.

Dr. Ellen Henning, a pediatric psychologist at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, said, “We are constantly learning new things and adapting as we go.

“We try to provide the best support possible and then we are all always integrating new knowledge and adjusting things as necessary.”