A 10-year-old who was connected to Ecmo due to a seemingly minor health problem/courtesy of those photographed
Quite a few children find themselves in the emergency room in recent months due to severe winter illnesses, but this case is very rare: a healthy 10-year-old boy arrived at the emergency room of the Schneider hospital with severe stomach pains and a high fever, and after a relatively short time, he was brought to the hospital.
"The child came to us at the emergency department with a central complaint of fever and abdominal pain," explains Dr. Ron Burnett, director of the emergency department (MD) at the Schneider Pediatric Center of the Klalit Group.
"We started tests to try to understand what the source was. As part of the investigation, we looked at his abdomen with POCUS (portable ultrasound). During the test, we found many cysts in the kidney, which were previously unknown. This, together with abnormal urine, raised the suspicion that the cause of the condition is the urinary tract."
According to him, while the evaluation and treatment continued, a sudden deterioration and system collapse began.
"The situation required us to urgently put him on an Acmo device in order to stabilize his condition and save his life. Putting a child on an Acmo in the MLR is extremely rare, and this is the fourth time in Schneider's history that this has happened.
These are one of the most dramatic moments that can happen and when successful, one of the most satisfying professionally and personally, a week ago the boy passed through our department to say hello before he is released home, when he is healthy, on two legs with no neurological deficits."
Bacteria/ShutterStock
A bacterium found on the skin of every child
In some cases, especially if it is not treated, a urinary tract infection can spread to the kidneys or other places in the body and sometimes even reach the bloodstream.
Complications that can happen following such a condition include: permanent kidney damage and sepsis (sepsis).
As part of the body's response to infection, it releases chemicals into the bloodstream that aim to fight the infection.
Sepsis develops when the body's response to these chemicals goes wrong and goes out of balance and then there is a danger of causing damage to the vital organs.
The bacteria found in the child is called staph aureus and is considered a common contaminant in pediatrics.
In fact, it is part of the normal flora found on the skin of all children and not infrequently can cause skin infections (impetigo, cellulitis) or a more invasive disease, such as sepsis - what we saw in the current case.
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"I realized moment by moment that something bad was happening"
"It started with strong stomach pains, vomiting and a high fever, at a certain point, when he was in a lot of pain, I decided to take him to the hospital," says Efrat, the boy's mother.
"We went to the Schneider Center, where we entered the emergency room. At first, we went through a series of tests that didn't show anything special, except for indicators of inflammation, until they decided to do an ultrasound on his kidneys because of the complaint of abdominal pain and also because he started having back pain. The ultrasound showed some kind of finding in the kidney. In the meantime, he continued to feel It got worse and worse, and I realized moment by moment that something bad was happening. I saw a lot of doctors enter his room, and they explained to me that the inflammation had moved to the bloodstream."
Efrat says that the doctors acted quickly and connected him to a heart-lung machine (acmo), which in retrospect saved his life.
"He was connected to a machine for several days, alternately ventilated and anesthetized. These were scary days, full of fears and uncertainty. When the tests came back, it turned out that the whole incident was caused by a bacteria in the urinary tract that spread into the blood. I never imagined in my life that something like this could suddenly happen like this to a healthy child. After a few days , he stabilized and came off the chemo and started treatment. Little by little he got better and today he already feels much better but is still recovering from the experience he went through, me too of course. I want to thank the hospital staff that treated him with such great dedication, and above all in a fast and accurate way."
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