By Pat Roxborough,
Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU: ONE-YEAR-OLD DANTE Pearson's mother, Shelly-Ann Dyer, got the scare of her life almost two weeks ago when her son's fingers began to swell and his temperature shot up.
By the time she took him to the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) the following day, his appetite had vanished and he refused to swallow anything but a little juice. This, along with the rash he had developed, led the doctor there to believe that Dante was suffering from food poisoning. He was treated accordingly and sent home, but Dante's mother had to rush back to the hospital the following night when the little boy's fever and rash worsened.
Still mistaking the symptoms for allergic reactions, the doctor gave Dante's mother a special allergy cream and some tablets. By Saturday Dante seemed a bit better, he was drinking a little and his fever had subsided, but the rash showed no signs of going away.
On Sunday he took a turn for the worse. He wouldn't stop crying, he wouldn't eat and he couldn't walk. His mouth was swollen, badly chapped and so sensitive that the slightest touch caused it to bleed. His rash had become almost unbearable.
The following day, his appetite returned and he began to eat a little, although he still couldn't walk.
On Tuesday his mother decided to go a different route. She took him to the public health clinic in Adelphi, St. James. However, the doctor there referred them back to the Cornwall Regional Hospital, to its paediatric unit.
"We were afraid to wait until Wednesday morning, however, so we took him to the emergency unit and they admitted him," said Shelly-Ann Dyer.
By Wednesday morning the diagnosis was in.
Dante had Kawasaki, a disease which is one of the two leading causes of acquired heart disease in children in the United States, the other being acute rheumatic fever.
In Jamaica, however, the disease, the cause of which is unknown, is a little less prevalent.
"About two cases come into the hospital each year," said the CRH's Dr. Andrea Gray. However, Dr. Sonia Thomas of the Bustamante Hospital for Children told The Gleaner that although she didn't handle every case that came into the hospital, she knew that several more than two cases each year were diagnosed in the Corporate Area.
"I can't give you all the figures now, but we see much more than that," she said.
Statistics compiled by the Bustamante Hospital show that 57 cases of Kawasaki were diagnosed at the University Hospital of the West Indies and the Bustamante Hospital for Children between 1986 and 1998.
Dr. Gray, who is involved with Dante's case, told The Gleaner that if treated in time with the $52,000 drug, Im-muneglobuline, it should stop the disease from damaging the heart.
It is too early to tell whether Dante, who got the drug last Thursday, was diagnosed in time. Since the administration of the drug, most of the symptoms he had been experiencing have subsided. However, the doctors say they are still going to run tests to determine whether his heart has been damaged.
Had the disease not been diagnosed, Dante might have ultimately suffered a heart attack.
