LONG COVID leaves healthy boy, 12, in a wheelchair – as well as crippling pain, fatigue and a FOUR-YEAR migraine

A seventh grader has shared his hellish battle with long Covid – which has left him wheelchair-bound and on dozens of meds.

Theo Huot de Saint-Albin, from Atlanta, Georgia, was 12 and otherwise completely healthy when he caught the virus in July 2020 for the first time.

His symptoms, which soon became debilitating, came on ‘directly after’ his first Covid infection, and have not improved much since then. 

He said he has suffered from constant migraines for four years, fatigue so bad he has a hard time leaving the couch, and pain so severe he has been confined to a wheelchair at times.  

Theo told Good Morning America:  ‘Sometimes it’s hard to get people to believe you as well because they can empathize with something they know is there. “Oh, you have a broken leg, I can see that. Wow, you can’t walk. That must be tough.” But, your head hurts? “I don’t see a big bulge on your head. I don’t see bandages wrapped around it.”’

Theo [shown] was misdiagnosed with Lyme disease, symptoms of which can look like long Covid. It took about two years for Theo to get the right diagnosis in 2022

Theo and his mother were relieved to finally get his diagnosis, which was initially said to be lyme disease

He added: ‘For me, I have chronic migraines … it doesn’t mean the migraine is terrible every day. It’s very unpredictable. It goes in waves. But it’s always there. It never leaves.

Theo went on to contract Covid another three times, but his long Covid symptoms were worse than the infections themselves.

Long Covid has affected between 18 and 23 million Americans, some of whom have experienced the symptoms of long-covid, including brain fog and fatigue, years after coming down with the virus.

Covid infections are rarely severe in children, and long Covid in that population has not been seen nearly as often as it has been in adults. 

Theo and his mother Meredith Eubanks said they couldn’t even remember how many doctors they saw looking for answers over the past four years. They were repeatedly told by it was not a case of Long Covid, which is relatively rare in kids.  

Theo and his mother traveled 600 miles to Baltimore to meet with pediatrics psychologist Dr Laura Malone, according to Good Morning America.

Dr Malone had established the Pediatric Post-COVID-19 Rehabilitation Clinic at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, a children-focused health organization affiliated with Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Ms Eubanks said: ‘They were the first place we got to where they were like, ‘Here’s a list of symptoms, and did you have any pre-COVID, and what did you have post-COVID?'”

‘I just remember that was such relief. It was just like, ‘Oh, you know, they’re recognizing this and it’s official, and Theo is not alone.”’

Theo was misdiagnosed with Lyme disease, symptoms of which can look like long Covid. It took about two years for Theo to get the right diagnosis in 2022. 

Theo said that some days he’s only able to go to school for a half-day, and some days he can’t move beyond the couch: ‘There’s no real way to tell how I’m going to feel.

He also suffers from symptoms like muscle pain, extreme fatigue and brain fog, which has left him wheelchair bound at times. 

Theo had a hard time at school, often needing to take half-days or stay home the whole day

In addition to having a four-year migraine, Theo often couldn’t leave the couch he was so fatigued

Dr Laura Malone [shown] established the Pediatric Post-COVID-19 Rehabilitation Clinic at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, a children-focused health organization affiliated with Johns Hopkins Medicine

Theo was also diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, which is triggered when a person stands up and the heart rate spikes, causing lightheadedness, fainting, and rapid heartbeat, which are relieved by lying down again.

Long Covid is a constellation of symptoms that appear weeks and can last years after infection. The exact cause is not completely understood but it’s believed to result from persistent inflammation, immune disruptions, organ damage, and possible reactivation of the virus in the body.   

Dr Malone said: ‘Most children can have a relatively mild infection and then go on to develop long-term sequela. So, that took a little bit of time to recognize and for patients to seek care, both from their primary care doctors and then also from clinics like us.’

‘We do see that there can be a lot of resiliency in children, and so despite them sometimes maybe having the symptoms, they may not always bring it up to family members or doctors but rather just try and manage the symptoms, and it’s only when it gets to be intolerable that sometimes it will present to more medical care.’

There is no diagnostic test for long Covid, and doctors can typically only treat the symptoms with medicines, physical therapy, and counseling.

The primary goal is to restore a child’s ability to go to school and maintain friendships.

Dr Malone said: ‘One of our big focuses is to try to provide accommodations to get kids back into school, but meet them where they are, because they may not be able to do a full course load, or they may not be able to make it through the full day of school.

‘But there is still benefit if they can go for an hour, and gradually increase that over time to getting them back into that sort of routine, and getting them back into the social aspects of school and the educational aspects.’

The condition, which can lead to depression and anxiety, can exacerbate pre-existing mental illness.

Dr Ellen Henning, a pediatric psychologist at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, said: ‘”We learn new things constantly and we adjust as we as we go.

‘We try to provide the best supports that we can and then we all are always integrating new knowledge and adjusting things as we need to.’