NYC Boy Had No Underlying Conditions — 5 Days Later, He Was on a Ventilator After Cardiac Arrest
Jayden Hardowar had been a seemingly healthy 8-year-old living in Richmond Hill, Queens, with his parents and three siblings. His mother, Navita, and father, Roup, said he was an active child who enjoyed biking and rollerblading. The 8-year-old Cub Scout had no underlying conditions, and no one in the family was thought to have been exposed to the coronavirus.
In late April, Jayden started having a fever and bouts of diarrhea. His parents took him to his pediatrician, and soon after he appeared to be responding well to Tylenol. Navita Hardowar said that his temperature broke after a few days, and he never showed any shortness of breath. Although his father said Jayden's strength hadn't really come back, they weren't overly worried as they believed it may be due to diarrhea.
"His body strength started to go down, he started to become a little bit weak," Roup Hardowar, Jayden's father and an employee for Con Edison, said. "We followed up with his pediatrician, and they thought that he would come around, maybe because he wasn't eating a lot."
On April 29, Jayden was in bed when he called for his mother. Navita said she got in the bed and turned on the TV when she heard him call out again for her, softly — which concerned her.
"I heard him call for mommy. Jayden has a strong voice when he calls for mommy, (but) his voice was very low," Navita said. "That voice grabbed my attention."
The mother said she moved closer into the bed, and noticed her child's head and hands were twisted in an unorthodox position backward.
"I quickly looked over at his face and his lips were all blue at that point, so right away I knew something was not right here with Jayden," Navita said. She started yelling his name, but he was not responding.
Struggling to find a pulse, Roup and Jayden's older brother Tyrone — a 15-year-old Boy Scout — began performing CPR as Navita called 911. She said the ambulance arrived within two minutes, and was soon rushing Jayden to Jamaica Hospital.
"As we moved on Atlantic Avenue, all I'm thinking in my mind is Jayden — is he gonna make it? Is he gonna make it?" said Roup.
From there he was transferred to Cohen Children's Hospital in Nassau County — where NBC New York first reported there have
already been about 40 similar pediatric patients — and quickly was put on a ventilator in the intensive care unit.
“We are seeing these patients. We just admitted another two (Sunday) night. I have six in my intensive care unit right now who fit this criteria. And these kids can be very ill. What’s most alarming is when they develop this syndrome, the blood vessels can be affected and it can lead to severe heart illness," said Dr. James Schneider, head of pediatric critical care at the hospital.
It took just five days for an overall healthy boy to go from playing games and singing to requiring a machine to help him breathe for several days, unable to speak to his parents who tried to video chat with him from his hospital bed. His parents said he has inflammation and suffered from cardiac arrest and heart failure.
"It's still a nightmare thinking of where Jayden is right now. Last week about this time, we were all together having dinner, playing, working from home, teaching from home, learning from home," said Navita, a public school teacher. "One of the scariest things as a mother, we're at home thinking something like this will never happen to us."
The Long Island hospital performed multiple tests on Jayden, his parents said, and all came back negative — an encouraging sign, they thought. But after conducting the antibody test, doctors said the young boy had contracted
COVID-19 at an earlier time.
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NYC Boy Had No Underlying Conditions — 5 Days Later, He Was on a Ventilator After Cardiac Arrest
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