GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WWMT) — Waylon Wehrle, 7, caught COVID-19 in spring 2021.
His mother said it didn't even seem like a bad case.
"He was sore throat, fever for a few days, and then he was just back to himself,” said Heather Nasser.
Waylon had gone back to school. However, there was a problem. He started showing diabetic symptoms. He was thirsty and going to the bathroom a lot.
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She took him to the doctor where Waylon was immediately sent to the hospital in an ambulance, because his sugar levels were off the charts. On the way to the hospital he stopped breathing.
Nasser was 38-weeks pregnant, while riding in that ambulance, staring at her son who stopped breathing.
"When he stopped breathing in the back of that ambulance. I remember putting my hand on his chest and saying, ‘Waylon,’ and it's not something you think you are ever going to have to do,” she said. "The COVID part didn't even cross my mind, until we were in the waiting room at Helen DeVos and the doctor said to me, ‘This happens to kids who have COVID, and we don't know why.’"
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Waylon's brain was swelling so much it started pushing down through the base of his skull.
Doctors said he was very lucky to have survived.
"He had two things at the same time. He had the COVID, and then he had the new onset diabetes. It's hard to tease out what caused what", said Dr. Doug Henry, with Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation hospital in Grand Rapids.
Henry has treated several pediatric COVID cases where the child developed diabetes, which is rare at such a young age.
"Probably a matter of minutes made the difference between life and death,” Henry said about Waylon.
Waylon has been visiting Mary Free Bed for occupational, physical and speech therapy every week. Doctors say he is getting better, and despite suffering a brain injury, they are optimistic about his future.
Nasser said she didn't take COVID-19 as seriously as she should have.
Her viewpoint has now changed because of what she saw happen to her son during that frightening ambulance ride.
"I was lackadaisical with the mask. I was passive at best,” she said. "If it can hurt my 7-year-old, as much as it's hurt my 7-year-old, put us through that much pain, that small amount of a chance for someone else, don't take that chance."
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"Most kids get this virus and are fine, or they have very little symptoms,” Henry said, "But some kids get very ill. Some kids die from this virus, some kids get severe brain injury from the virus. And I have kids with amputations because of the virus. You have to take it seriously, even with kids."