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A 2-year-old boy in Southern California has become the latest victim in the on-going spread of a mystery virus most closely comparable to polio.
Lucian Olivera was first misdiagnosed with ear infections and fevers and then three days after being let out following their third emergency room visit, something changed.
‘He let out this scream- it sounded like I was removing toenails. It was the worst scream I’ve ever heard,’ Lucian’s mom Erin Olivera said.
His father noticed a difference as well, saying that ‘he dropped to one side’.
‘I felt helpless. It was extremely frustrating. It was hard to sit and not be able to help him,’ Mrs Olivera told CBS Los Angeles of the weeks of not-knowing.
Doctors at Stanford University did what other doctors could not determine in a month of testing: they concluded that he had a mystery infection that is now being called California polio-like syndrome.
There have been 20 cases of the baffling disease throughout the state, with mixed reports of whether Lucian is the first or sixth case reported in Southern California.
The paralysis in Lucian’s left leg is expected to be permanent, but he is currently undergoing physical therapy in an effort to strengthen the muscles both so they don’t atrophy and so that he will one day be able to walk with just a cane as opposed to a walker.
The cause of the disease remains unknown but doctors, including those who are treating Lucian at Simi Valley Hospital in Los Angeles, are confident that it is not contagious.
‘We are at no way at an epidemic level and there does not appear to be concern that this is rapidly spreading through the community,’ Dr Dingilian told ABC.
Mrs Olivera said that while the diagnosis did bring some relief, she still deals with the grief of knowing what her so will be facing for the rest of his life. His bright demeanor helps keep those thoughts at bay, however.
‘You’ll see him trying his hardest with the cane and that determination makes me keep going forward,’ she said.
‘He’ll just go: “Mama, I love you more than a camel” and you just melt.’
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Your family is blessed. I had a son with many medical issues and at four I told him he could be a chronic crappy kid because others wouldn’t like him, and when I was DX a few years later he reminded me that I couldn’t be a crappy chronic adult. Looks like it worked for him, hie’s getting his Phd in Physical Therapy finish’s this May G-d willing!! Kiss him to the camel and back