‘My baby almost died’: mother tells of two-month-old’s battle with Covid-19

When Divan du Toit became ill two weeks ago, he was diagnosed as having a bad dose of flu.

But the two-month-old from Somerset West in the Western Cape is one of the youngest to be hospitalised with severe Covid-19.

His mother, Marlé du Toit, said he presented with typical flu symptoms.

“It was the same as my husband, myself and our two-year-old son, so we didn’t think much of it originally. Just a snotty nose and a mild, wet cough. The cough worried me, so I took him to a doctor on the Friday morning.  She said his lungs were 100% fine and that we probably had a bad case of flu. She was a bit worried about his cough and prescribed cortisone.

“She said he might get a bit worse over the weekend, but that we’d see improvement in a few days. Divan was very fussy on Friday and Saturday evenings, but fine during the day,” Du Toit said.

He took a turn for the worse two days later, so his parents took him back to the doctor.

“We went to bed at 11pm that night and woke up at 2am when Divan started crying really bad. We tried to get him back to sleep, but my husband and I were worried about his breathing, which started to get very shallow. We then decided to take him to the emergency room straight away,” Du Toit recalled.

Divan was admitted to hospital on June 14.

“They took two nose swabs when we arrived at the hospital, one for Covid-19 and one for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and we received his results the next morning. We were shocked to learn he had tested positive for Covid-19 and negative for RSV, which he received treatment for when we arrived at the ER,” his mother said.

Du Toit was “absolutely shattered” when she learnt the results.

“I immediately realised I, my husband and our other two children were also probably positive. Divan was still struggling to breathe properly and although his saturation levels weren’t that low, his lungs were full of fluid and his little nose completely blocked, making it extremely difficult to breathe properly. He also didn’t want to feed and was becoming dehydrated.

“He was taken to ICU, put on a drip and a high-flow oxygen machine. As a mother who couldn’t help her baby while he was suffering and failing to breath as normal, I was an absolute wreck. My husband immediately started to isolate with our other two children,” she said.  

Divan was discharged from ICU on June 19.

“He was still very sick and I treated his symptoms at home, but we were lucky enough that his lungs improved significantly by that Friday afternoon. His saturation levels also remained at 100% when he was taken off any additional oxygen,” Du Toit said.

On Wednesday, Divan saw his doctor for a check-up.

“He is doing much better. He still does have some flu symptoms, but he is 100% better than the week he was in ICU. I was shocked when the doctor informed me that Divan was the first baby that was so young with Covid-19 that he had to be hospitalised in ICU.

“Our doctor is going to check what variant Divan had but she is almost 100% certain that it was the Delta variant, which makes sense because the Alpha and Beta variants didn’t affect kids this much,” Du Toit said.

The family said they were sharing their story so other parents would be aware babies can contract Covid-19.

“I’m extremely worried more and more babies will get infected and end up in the ICU like our little boy. He was born full-term, has had excellent health so far, with no comorbidities, and he still almost died. Covid-19 is definitely affecting babies more and more and their symptoms are disguised as normal flu symptoms,” Du Toit said.

According to the latest report from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) on Covid-19 and children, the highest rate of admissions to hospital for youngsters was among those under the age of one.

“The cumulative rate of admission was highest in individuals aged <1 year at 1667.7 per 1 million population, followed by individuals aged 15-19 years at 758.0 per 1 million population,” the report said.

As of May 1 this year, children made up 9.4% of laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases and 3.8% of all Covid-19-associated admissions.