TESTIMONY. “We were very lucky,” says the father of a child with Kawasaki disease.

The Burgundy-Franche-Comté Regional Health Agency revealed on Friday that three children in the region had been hospitalized with symptoms of Kawasaki syndrome. In Marseille, a first child died this week from this disease, whose links with covid-19 are still unclear.

Described as extremely rare, Kawasaki disease affected a young Burgundian at the end of last year.

Her father, Benjamin, agreed to tell us how, after several days of questioning in the face of a relapsing fever, her son was hospitalized.

“It started Christmas week, at my parents’ house near Besançon, remembers Benjamin. He started to have a little fever. We weren’t worried at first, we gave him Doliprane “.

In addition to the fever, the boy’s body is covered with red patches. The family then calls SOS Doctors: “We were told that he was probably having an allergic reaction.”

The problem is that the fever never goes down permanently: “It was the roller coaster, between 37 and 40 °”.

Go to the emergency room, they will tell you

Back in the Côte d’Or, at their home, about twenty kilometers north of Dijon, the parents contact SOS Doctors again, and then manage to take the child to their GP.

“She told us right away: ‘It looks like the Kawasaki syndrome, go to the emergency room, they can tell you’, says Benjamin. She had already had a case that she hadn’t known how to diagnose. We were very lucky. “

In the emergency department of the Dijon CHU, the boy and his parents are taken care of quickly. “He was more and more tired, the headache was exhausting him, the rashes scratched him, and he was conjunctivitis”.

He had to be under constant surveillance

Immediately, the parents feel reassured by the healthcare team: “They told us: ‘Even if it’s Kawasaki, we know how to treat. You came on time’, because we couldn’t be sure until after 5 days of fever”, continues Benjamin. We were told that the child’s body defends and reacts, its immune system is found against it. “

Once the diagnosis is confirmed, the boy is quickly transferred to intensive care. “because he had to be under constant surveillance”. “He was treated with two injections of immunoglobulins, a drug from plasma donation, remembers Benjamin, himself a blood donor. These injections are long, 9 or 10 hours I think. “

After the second injection, the fever finally drops. However, the boy is not on his feet.

We do not know the disease 100%

“He had a heart complication, myocarditis, quite common with Kawasaki”, details his father. A specific treatment is then given, with continuous monitoring of the heart.

In total, the boy remained hospitalized for ten days, then stayed for two more weeks at home.

“It was ten days of great stress, because when we tell you ‘we don’t know the disease 100%’, it’s never reassuring”, says Benjamin. We are very happy that the village doctor directed us to the emergency room. We were told that it couldn’t be taken sooner. And then at the hospital, the teams were really great, they took good care of our son and also of us the parents. “

Today, Benjamin’s son is doing well. Twice a day, he must take medication to avoid heart complications. He will also see a specialist, every year, until his tenth birthday.

In order not to overload his heart, he had to stop judo. But he should find the tatami mats at the start of the next school year, for much more joyful fights than the one he waged this winter at the hospital.