A toddler’s symptoms puzzle doctors for days until the diagnosis is made

After enduring a harrowing ordeal with her young son, a mother took to social media to share her experience in the hope it could help others. The boy puzzled doctors for five days, suffering distressing and unusual symptoms as medical staff struggled to provide answers. It was so bad that the child even thought he would die before the family could finally get a diagnosis.

Natasha Durling wasn’t too worried when her son Oliver started feeling tired and exhausted after a long day on a Thursday. But on Friday evening, his illness worsened to vomiting and diarrhea, and his condition deteriorated rapidly. The Canadian mother began to worry as Oliver continued to deteriorate, eventually leading to the little boy being sicker than ever and experiencing distressing symptoms.

By Saturday morning, Oliver was weak, had bloodshot eyes, a high fever, sore muscles and swollen, cracked and bleeding lips. Then on Sunday morning, Oliver was lethargic, wouldn’t eat and was still in pain, so the Canadian mother called the non-emergency number for medical inquiries. She was told to make an appointment with a doctor if the boy’s fever lasted longer than five days.

Unfortunately, Oliver’s condition continued to deteriorate. On Monday morning the little boy had stopped eating and drinking. A rash also appeared on his face and neck and his lymph nodes were swollen. That’s when Natasha, in a panic, took the boy to the hospital, where she said doctors struggled to make a concrete diagnosis despite the harrowing symptoms.

Fearing he might have measles, a nurse sent Oliver into quarantine. However, because his vaccinations were up to date and there were no white spots in his mouth, a common symptom in people with measles, Oliver’s symptoms just didn’t seem to quite match the diagnosis, the Daily Mail reported. So doctors attributed Oliver’s illness to a virus and sent the boy home, even though he had “a high fever, rash, dehydration and absolute agony,” his mother recalled.

Natasha was instructed to give Oliver Tylenol and Benadryl and to bring him back if he got worse. Unfortunately, things got even worse the next morning when Oliver didn’t want to get up. “He [said] His legs hurt too much and he thinks he’s going to die,” his distraught mother recalled, explaining that at that point her son was covered “from head to toe” in the worst rash she had ever seen, and that his Fever remained high despite medication. Bring it down.

Natasha took Oliver back to the hospital and again the boy was quarantined for a possible case of measles, but again a doctor said it couldn’t be measles because Oliver was vaccinated. So the symptoms were again attributed to a virus and Natasha was again told to take him home, but she didn’t have the virus. “At this point I have [lose] “My shit,” she admitted. “I demand that he at least get some bloodwork done and get some fluids into his obviously dehydrated body!”

Natasha also urged Oliver to see a pediatrician, who she said was “very concerned” and “completely baffled” about her son’s mysterious condition. Oliver was given IV fluids and a urine sample was requested. “While he’s peeing, he panics and screams that he can’t see and that he’s blind, then he goes stiff, shakes and falls into my arms,” ​​Natasha wrote in a Facebook post, sharing the frightening ordeal with. “At that point the nurse takes him from me and I grab his IV pole and run to the ICU where doctors and nurses are trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with him.”

Ultimately, medical staff concluded that Oliver was suffering from a rare inflammation of the blood vessels that most commonly affects children under five. The condition is called Kawasaki disease, named after the Japanese pediatrician who discovered it. It typically presents with a rash on the body, fever that lasts at least five days, red eyes and swollen lymph nodes, lips, tongue, feet and hands. After receiving the diagnosis, Oliver was admitted to hospital for treatment.

“He is on blood infusions all night long, screaming in pain from his inflamed blood, stomach pain, inflamed joints, and vomiting several times,” Natasha wrote, further describing the harrowing ordeal Oliver endured. Luckily, there was relief when the mother added: “The next morning his rash is gone and he is feeling much better!”

With proper treatment, Oliver’s symptoms improved. When his fever dropped, the hospital wanted to send him home, but Natasha refused to go, saying he still had mild anemia and his blood was “completely messed up.” So he stayed and that evening the mother found out from a nurse that Oliver’s urine sample had tested positive for measles. So the boy, who shockingly had both measles and the rare Kawasaki disease, was quarantined again.

According to Natasha, Oliver is believed to be the only known case of having measles and Kawasaki disease at the same time despite current vaccinations, prompting her to urge other parents to “trust their gut” if something doesn’t seem to be the case to be at peace with their children. Had she not made demands on the medical staff, we shudder to think how this already harrowing ordeal could have ended. Fortunately, that is not the case.

The mother explained on GoFundMe that Oliver needs to go to the hospital regularly so doctors can monitor his heart and watch for complications like aneurysms and heart attacks. He also took aspirin daily but was on the mend – and his mother’s intuition definitely played a role. In fact, patients – or in this case their parents – often need to be their own advocates when their health is at stake.