Boy, 12, Struggles with Long Covid for 4 Years, Says It’s ‘Worse Than Actual Covid’
Theo Huot de Saint-Albin says the disease “lurks” in the background, causing brain fog, pain and migraines that keep him from attending school regularly
A 12-year-old boy is sharing his experience with long Covid after contracting the virus four years ago.
“What happened directly after Covid was worse than my actual Covid, because long Covid, it’s all the time. All day, every day,” Theo Huot de Saint-Albin told Good Morning America about his struggle after first getting Covid in July of 2020, when he was just 9 years old.
At the time, it was widely believed that young people didn’t suffer severe symptoms from the respiratory illness.
But since then, Huot de Saint-Albin has experienced symptoms like migraines, brain fog, fatigue and muscle pain — and sometimes he is too sick to attend school.
“It’s very unpredictable,” Huot de Saint-Albin told Good Morning America while sitting with his parents. “It goes in waves, but it’s always there. It never really leaves. It just kind of lurks.”
“There’s no real way to tell how I’m going to feel.”
Huot de Saint-Albin said that it’s hard getting doctors to believe him, because his symptoms are “invisible.”
But in April 2022, the local children’s hospital finally diagnosed him with long Covid.
According to the CDC, 1.3% of children are impacted by long Covid, and girls are more likely to suffer from it than boys. It also impacts children aged 12–17 years more than it does those under 11.
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However, for Huot de Saint-Albin his official diagnosis meant he could be admitted as a patient to the Pediatric Post-Covid-19 Rehabilitation Clinic at the Kennedy Krieger Institute.
“So many children will have multiple symptoms after their Covid-19 infection,” the clinic’s director, Dr. Laura Malone, told GMA. “But because a lot of these symptoms are more vague and indolent and they sometimes present gradually over time, it can be hard for them to express it.”
Related: Boy, 5, Dies of Sepsis After Catching Covid and Strep A
And as for Huot de Saint-Albin, he told GMA, “I know I’m gonna finish school. I think I’m gonna get better. And with all the research that’s gonna come out, hopefully something will help me more than anything else.”
“We have a lot of hope,” he said.
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