After testing positive for COVID-19, a 6-year-old boy was placed on life support. Tiarella Ruffin told KVVU that her son, Zyaire Bell, was tested positive for the illness in September. When his condition worsened, she kept him home from school and took him to the hospital.
Ruffin remembered a scary time when doctors told him he wouldn’t make it and that his heart had deteriorated.
“It’s like a nightmare,” Ruffin said. “My prayer is that he’s healthy, he grows up healthy. And I know his heart is never going to be the same.”
Claire was diagnosed with MIS-C, or multi-system inflammatory syndrome, which is a rare but life-threatening illness linked to COVID-19.
More than 6,400 children have been diagnosed with the disease, with 55 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Zyaire was transported to a children’s hospital in Salt Lake City, according to Ruffin.
Doctors traveled in from all over the country to see her kid, she said, because he was one of the few children in the United States who required life-support equipment.
For two weeks, Zyaire was on an ECMO machine.
As per WSFA, the family has returned home, but Ruffin has been unable to work because she is now her son’s caregiver around the clock.
They are attempting to return to Salt Lake City for medical appointments and have set up a GoFundMe page to assist with expenses.