Bakersfield teen beats COVID-19 and post viral syndrome

Bakersfield, Calif (KBAK/KBFX) — Adam Black was a healthy 17-year-old when he was diagnosed with COVID-19 in June.

"It was so weird because I couldn't taste my toothpaste and I was like this is not normal," Adam said.

He had no underlying conditions and beat the virus just fine, but two weeks after his self-isolation period things took a turn for the worse. Adam said one morning he woke up in unimaginable pain.

"It literally felt like I had been hit by a bus. Everything hurt, it was the worst pain I had ever been in," Adam said.

Adam had a fever, body aches, was vomiting, and had extremely low blood pressure causing him to faint.

After a few hospital visits in Bakersfield, doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him, so they rushed Adam to Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera.

Dr. Molly Dorfman a pediatric intensivist with Valley Children’s said Adam arrived in a shocked-like state.

Adam was diagnosed with Multisymptom Inflammatory syndrome in Children or MIS-C. It’s a post-viral syndrome that attacks healthy parts of the body and cusses severe inflammation. It’s specific to coronavirus and doctors are seeing this more and more in kids and teens.

"It's basically the body having an abnormal reaction to the coronavirus illness This is not abnormal. Viruses, because of how, and I hate to say this, but how dumb they are but also how smart they are will dysregulate the body's system,” Dorman said.

In Adam’s case, the antibodies leftover from coronavirus stacked his heart.

"I'm lying there and they're very concerned because they think at any minute my heart could stop beating," Adam said.

Doctors had to shock Adam’s system multiple times. Adam’s dad said it was the hardest thing he’s ever had to watch.

Adam spent two weeks at Valley Children’s under constant care and stories like his are not uncommon. Doctors are seeing this MIS-C syndrome more and more as the virus spreads, but because of this, there is a clear course of treatment and Adam is living proof as he walked out of the hospital on Wednesday.

"Yeah they wanted to wheel me out in a wheelchair and I was like no, no. I want to walk,” Adam said.