When Dr. Elisa Song started noticing how COVID-19 took hold of children’s brains, it wasn’t just alarming to her as a researcher — it hit home for her as a parent, too.
Shortly after the integrative pediatrician’s 8-year-old son, Bodi, contracted the virus in late March, Song rushed him to the emergency room. He was doubled over with severe abdominal pains, excruciating headaches and sinister hallucinations.
It was “the single most frightening experience I’ve ever had,” Song told The Post.
She soon learned that Bodi had developed a serious side effect of the virus now known as Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). The illness attacks the cognitive functions of a child’s brain, as well as other bodily systems outside of the respiratory system, two to four weeks after a child contracts the coronavirus. Potentially deadly, the harmful effects of MIS-C can cause children to suffer academically, emotionally and socially.
Song has since focused her professional efforts on the syndrome that her son fought. Her frightening experience with MIS-C, she said, motivates her to keep patients and other parents informed of the latest, most accurate information about the under-researched medical conundrum.
Even with hope on the horizon amid a growing list of vaccines beginning to roll out, Song wants other parents to know the long-term effects of the virus on children. Bodi fully recovered from his MIS-C symptoms about four weeks after developing the illness. He has since excelled in school and graduated into the fourth grade along with his peers.
“Parents should be on the lookout for severe changes in their child’s ability to stay on task in school in the weeks after being diagnosed with COVID,” Song, who trained at Stanford, New York University and the University of California, San Francisco, told The Post. “If your child suddenly has trouble starting and completing homework assignments, remembering things they just learned, or if they get easily frustrated by the slightest changes to their schedules, these might be indicators the inflammation to the brain is affecting their cognitive capabilities.”
Like a lot of kids who get the illness, Bodi, a typically healthy and precocious third-grader at the time, was asymptomatic and never developed a cough or fever when he first tested positive for COVID-19. His older sister Kenzi, 11, also tested positive. But in the weeks that followed, Bodi’s health started declining.
“We were really scared, because at the time, no one knew much about MIS-C as a side effect to COVID,” Song said of her and husband Peter Johnson’s reaction.
While he did suffer the physical ailments of MIS-C — including abdominal pain, migraines, low oxygen levels, a rash and red discoloration of the eyes — Bodi also experienced diminished levels of executive functioning, the set of self-regulating cognitive skills that includes planning and multitasking.
“Executive function is something that’s required for success in all areas of life, including your education, your emotions and your personal relationships,” said Song, a Brooklyn native who now lives in San Francisco.
Although data is still limited on MIS-C, Song said recent research on Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Adults (MIS-A) shows that there are potentially long-term cognitive-deficit complications that stem from the illness in grown-ups.
“What’s concerning is that studies have shown many adults are suffering from something called ‘long COVID’ or long-haul COVID symptoms six months or more after their initial diagnosis,” Song said.
Recent research indicates that the residual neurological symptoms of long-haul COVID include ongoing headaches, brain fog, fatigue, dizziness, shortness of breath and joint and muscle pain. “Now there are some reports of children with long haul symptoms or ‘long COVID,’ ” Song said.
To counteract the cognitive impacts of MIS-C on the brain, Song urges parents to schedule regular visits with their child’s pediatrician, conduct progress-report meetings with teachers and add fresh fruits and vegetables rich in vitamins C and D into their kids’ diet.
“Children are resilient,” Song said. “But . . . it’s important parents become more knowledgeable and aware of the illness in order to address any concerns early on and to ensure their kid gets back on track. We are not powerless in this.”
