These days, our lives are nothing similar to what they have been before the coronavirus outbreak. The fast-spreading infection has changed everyday living, claimed thousands of lives, and keeps us paralyzed in fear and panic.

Even though it has disproportionately affected older adults, this does not mean that anyone is immune to it. Unfortunately, a six-month old baby from Manchester, England, proves it.

Erin Bates has a heart condition and windpipe problems, and was already in the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. In December, she underwent open-heart surgery.

The news that their daughter has been infected with COVID-19 has broken the hearts of her parents, Emma and Wayne, but they claim that the staff at the hospital is amazing during the hardships they have to endure.

The father said:

“She is only alive due to the staff at Alder Hey, the doctors and nurses. I feel like the nurses especially have bought into Erin and have an emotional attachment to getting her better. They are looking after my wife and my girl, which is excellent. “

When Erin was born, the parent have been ‘over the moon’, as they have been trying to start a family for a decade. Erin is now on a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine that supplies her with oxygen, with her mother next to her.

Emma, 29, mostly fears that she will be separated from her baby if she contracts the virus:

“This alone breaks my heart that if things get worse our baby girl maybe on her own when she needs her mummy and daddy by her side.”

The Bates posted a photo of Erin, on an oxygen machine surrounded by wires, tubes and equipment, to remind people to take the coronavirus seriously and follow the guidelines.

Wayne, 32, is self-isolating at the family home in Bury, Greater Manchester, due to the contact he has had with Erin.

In a Facebook post, Emma wrote:

” Both myself and Wayne are utterly heartbroken yet again that we are in a position where we may lose our little girl if she doesn’t carry on fighting.

Please, please, please keep Erin in your prayers. We can’t lose her over this virus. She has battled through too much – we need her, she completes us.

I hope that those who haven’t taken this virus serious read this and I hope it now sinks in.”

The CDC claims that children and infants are not at an more elevated risk of COVID-19 than adults. Moreover, those who do get infected have milder symptoms than adults, such as a runny nose, a cough, or a fever.

Yet, infants are at a higher risk for developing complications or severe illness than older children, as their immune systems are less capable to combat diseases, since they are still developing.

Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, chair of the committee on infectious diseases at the American Academy of Pediatrics, explains that “the first year of life, children don’t have the same robust immune response that older children and adults do.”

Also, as they usually develop milder symptoms or no symptoms at all, children might spread to virus to other, more vulnerable, categories. Therefore, make sure your children regularly wash their hands, and are not in contact with older members of your family.

Additionally, they should not get together with groups of other kids during the coronavirus pandemic.

The only way we can all save ourselves from the dangerous virus is to follow the rules for proper hygiene and social distancing and stand together for the cause- to save as many lives as possible.

Sources:
www.liverpoolecho.co.uk
metro.co.uk
www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk