BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. — The first death from a rare condition associated with COVID-19 found in children was reported in Maryland Tuesday.
The Maryland Department of Health confirmed the state's first child death linked to COVID-19.
RELATED: 15-year-old dies from COVID-19 in Baltimore County
The state health department says a 15-year-old from Baltimore County died in the hospital after showing symptoms of a condition called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C).
Kandice Knight confirmed on Monday that the patient was her daughter Dar'yana Dyson, who she said suddenly died nearly a week after she complained about a stomach ache.
Knight also said she tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies.
“She’s 15. She was a healthy child. Nothing was wrong with her. Nothing. And for her to just die so sudden. It’s so tragic," Knight said.
MIS-C is a rare, but severe inflammatory disease. It’s been found in children, who tested positive for the virus, in states across the U.S.
There’s been three additional cases related to the new syndrome in Maryland, said spokesperson Charles Gischlar. The state health department is currently working with its partners to identify more cases, he said.
Dr. Kwang Sik Kim, who is the medical director at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Medicine, said the new syndrome is similar to the Kawasaki disease. It’s a disease typically found in children under the age of 5 with symptoms such as a high fever and rash.
However, Dr. Kim said the new syndrome is affecting older children, while they also experience more severe symptoms.
“In children with Kawasaki, shock and hypertension, is very very infrequent, but appears to be frequent in children with this syndrome,” he said.
The rare syndrome has left doctors across the country scrambling to find out exactly what this new condition is, and how exactly it’s developing in children.
“We don’t have a lot of information because this is a new syndrome but it appears to occur in the later stage of disease,” Dr. Kim said.
Dr. Kim also said medical professionals are using a treatment option, which was previously used to treat Kawasaki. He said it’s proving to be beneficial so far, but added more research needs to be done.
“If we understand how this syndrome occurs then we should be able to come up with a very optimal way to treat this syndrome,” he said.
