26-year-old hospitalized in severe condition and suffering from myocardial injury • Similar cases have only been discovered so far in children • Prof. Galia Rahav: "The disease is still mysterious"

• ECMO device // Photo by Michelle Dot Com

A rare complication from Corona and probably the first reported in the world in an adult: The Sheba Hospital has been hospitalized for a few days for a 26-year-old boy from Barak, who, in addition to Corona, suffers from a multi-systemic inflammatory disease, which is accompanied by myocardial injury. 

This is a rare complication that has been documented in children in the United States, and in Israel, too, three cases of children who have been in Corona and the rare inflammation have been reported, including 11 and 16 years old who were admitted to Rambam and a child admitted to Hadassah. Following these cases, the Ministry of Health has called on hospitals to be alert to cases of pediatric myocarditis.

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The young man's condition is very difficult, he was breathing and undergoing some resuscitation and is now connected to an ECMO device that replaces heart and lung operation until they are recovered. The young man's mother works in an educational institution and this week the children were removed from the institution, after the mother was also required to do so.

"Very hard case"

The young man came to Sheba with strong abdominal pain and fever without having been in contact with a verified corona patient. The initial hypothesis was that he was suffering from appendicitis, a diagnosis that was subsequently denied. Later, the doctors thought he had inflammation of the intestine. Two tests that he did were repeated negatively. But later, in the face of signs of inflammation and further deterioration in his condition, he underwent bronchoscopy - an examination of the airway in which a sample was taken from the lungs. This test showed a "weak" positive result for Corona.

He has developed health symptoms, severe heart and kidney damage. "The picture was of the same multiracial inflammatory disease associated with the corona virus that appears in children," says Prof. Galia Rahab, director of the Sheba Infectious Diseases Unit, which accompanied the diagnosis and treatment, "after we got a weak positive result, it was clear to us that it was a corona. In steroids and immunoglobulins (antibodies) - treatment that gets into his or her complication. His case is very difficult, and after some resuscitation - it's still too early to know what the prognosis will be. In children, we know that when you get the treatment early, the prognosis is good. "

Later, the patient also underwent an antibody test for Corona (a serological test) that showed high values ​​- a signal that the young person did indeed contract Corona. 

Prof. Rahab intends to publish an article about the case in a scientific journal, to alert her colleagues worldwide. "This is an important case, because this is the oldest patient with this complication. It indicates that this disease is still mysterious for us and there are complications that do not know about or do not link them to Corona," explains the director of the Sheba Infectious Diseases. "To learn more about the consequences of the disease. I call on my colleagues to be alert to the symptoms of abdominal pain. The public also needs to be alert to all kinds of symptoms that the corona causes."