ST. LOUIS — Angel Baker and her 14-year-old daughter Marionna have gone through a horrifying week.
Marionna tested positive for COVID-19. She started feeling sick and it quickly got worse.
“I was scared. I was panicked,” said the mother. “Monday, the second, Aug. 2, I decided to take her to the urgent care because she told me she couldn't breathe.”
Health care workers decided Marionna would get the care she needed in St. Louis, about 150 miles away from her home in southern Missouri. An ambulance rushed her to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital.
“It was very scary,” Marionna recalled.
The teen spent five days on oxygen.
“Praying, asking God to bring her back, keep her safe,” Baker said of what was going through her mind while her child struggled to breath.
Baker said she was afraid her daughter wouldn’t make it.
The 40-year-old mother said she received the COVID-19 vaccine, but her daughter didn’t. It was a decision she said she left up to the teen – something she now regrets.
“Please parents, get vaccinated, and get your kids vaccinated. It's real. Don’t let no school, no governor, nobody… it's real,” she said through tears.
Doctors earlier this week said there were children as young as 2 years old in the pediatric intensive care unit and regular patient rooms at Cardinal Glennon. Last year at this time, doctors said the typical number of children with COVID-19 coming into the emergency room on a daily basis was zero, one or two. Now, they said that daily number is usually 11, 12 or 13.
“We're seeing more severe cases. We're seeing more cases in the ICU. And seeing more cases that require longer duration of treatment in the hospital,” said Dr. Wail Hayajneh, who’s a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Cardinal Glennon.
He added that none of the children in the hospital with the virus have been vaccinated. Some of them are too young to receive the shot.
“It's agonizing sometimes; especially when you see some of these kids spiraling down before they head to the ICU,” said Dr. Aline Tanios, who’s the surgical unit medical director at the hospital.
Marionna was able to turn the corner in her fight against the virus and has since been released from the hospital. She is looking forward to recovering at home and then being well enough to start her life as a high school freshman.
The teen encouraged those who are able to be vaccinated to get the shot.
“Get a vaccine, so you don’t have to be in the hospital, and you can’t breathe,” she said slowly and tearfully.