Covid in Scotland: Warning from family of 10-year-old treated in ICU

The family of a 10-year-old boy who became seriously ill after contracting Covid-19 have warned that everyone is at risk from the disease.

Jack Fair, who has no underlying health conditions, was treated in intensive care after contracting the virus.

Now discharged from hospital, his parents said he is "on the road to a long recovery".

While young people are unlikely to become seriously ill, Jack's family want to highlight the risk.

Writing on social media, Jack's mum Tracey Fair said she wanted to share her son's story in the hope it saved other families going through what the Fairs did.

"Covid is a disease that even the experts are admitting is a learning process.

"We hear how children are rarely affected by this disease and if they are unlucky enough to catch it very rarely have symptoms, I wish in our case this was true."

She said Jack was "normally a very healthy" 10-year-old boy, with no underlying health conditions.

Although his parents had the virus in October neither Jack nor his sister displayed any symptoms.

But when he started getting "a little bit confused", his parents decided to phone NHS 24.

Ms Fair said: "We were advised to take him into hospital just to be on the safe side," for what medics thought would "maybe a wee infection," Ms Fair said.

She added that "he didn't have any of the well-known symptoms of Covid", like a cough, temperature, or change in taste or smell.

He was taken to St John's Hospital in Livingston on 9 November to be assessed.

But from there, Jack was rushed to intensive care at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow.

Doctors warned that Jack's heart valves were inflamed and he was suffering with other complications caused by Covid.

He was then put in an induced coma for several days.

He was in ICU for nearly a week, and spent a further week in a ward, in what his family describe as "the worst time of our lives".

But he is now "on the road to a long recovery", according to his mum, and she hopes to "spread far and wide" the family's experience.

The family - who live in Blackridge, West Lothian - want "to get the word out that even though it is rare, children are at risk too and no one is immune from this".

"Everyone is at risk of this disease," Ms Fair added.

His parents told the BBC that doctors believe he is only the first or second child in Scotland to develop this rare illness - which has symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease - as a result of the virus.

In April, NHS doctors were told to look out for the rare but dangerous reaction in children.

The symptoms medics were warned to be vigilant for included a high fever, rash, red eyes, swelling and general pain.

Most of those affected do not have major lung or breathing problems.

Dr Cheryl Gillis, a paediatrician who works in the ICU where Jack was treated, said in some rare cases children's immune systems could react to the virus in a very exaggerated way, setting off an "almost uncontrollable inflammatory response".

It is not usually the active Covid infection that causes this - and in fact, it tends to be children who did not have Covid symptoms and who have been exposed to the virus in a very mild way, Dr Gillis said.

She added that what happened to Jack was "extremely rare".

"The risk of your child getting this is vanishingly small - but we know it exists."

She added that parents should seek help if they were concerned, and said they should watch out for children if: