Suffering from vomiting, nausea and fever after recovering from COVID-19, Eduard Costan, a 4-year-old living in Romania, could not be treated in his country. The child's condition only worsened as he began to sleep constantly and he lost the ability to walk. Thankfully, the little child regained his health after undergoing surgery in Turkey.
Eduard and his parents had contracted coronavirus 1 ½ months ago. Three weeks after the infection, the little boy started showing symptoms. At first, the doctors diagnosed the problem as meningitis and treated the boy with antibiotics. Unfortunately, the boy did not respond to the treatment and his condition deteriorated. Soon he was unable to eat or walk and started sleeping a lot. The little boy, whom the doctors advised be "put to sleep" in his country, was transferred to Turkey by air ambulance.
Medicana Kadıköy Hospital Brain and Nerve Surgery Specialist Dr. Hakan Şimşek said that when Eduard first came, he could only breathe and was unresponsive.
Şimşek said, “We compared the tomography with the previous scans. What we saw in this comparison was an acutely developed hydrocephalus."
Defining the condition as an increase in the circulating fluid pressure in the brain, Şimşek added, “The child cannot tolerate this. This is a life-threatening situation."
Noting that hydrocephalus is one of the residual effects of coronavirus infections in children and teens, Şimşek said, “This situation needs to be managed well. We quickly operated on the patient. It was a closed endoscopic operation. During the same session, we performed a specific surgery for the treatment of hydrocephalus. We inserted his catheter. We evacuated the cerebrospinal fluid inside for 4-5 days. In the meantime, we got cultures.”
Stating that Eduard got better the day after the operation and is in good shape now, Şimşek said “We were all very happy. He held on to life again, woke up. He started to eat, sit, walk, and his movements improved.”
Explaining the lingering impacts COVID-19 can have on the body, Şimşek said: “In the aftermath, the coronavirus infection settles in certain parts of the brain and stays there. It does not immediately leave the central nervous system. Therefore, it may cause other problems in the long run. Recently, similar case series have started to appear in the literature on an individual basis.”
