Cassian Coates was rushed to hospital by his worried parents because he had a cold and fever for a number of days, but the news of the nine-month-old’s diagnosis came just hours before a baby at the James Paget University Hospital in Norfolk was confirmed to have the killer bug.
His parents, Myroslava and Callum Caotes, say they realized something was up when hospital staff put a “big sign up” near them which read “suspected case”.
She said a nurse walked past them in Manchester and gave them the horrific news by saying: “Yeah, that’s you guys”.
‘Yeah, it’s the coronavirus strand.’ said a doctor after assessing Cassian.
‘We weren’t expecting that. Cassian had a fever and cold but not the cough and symptoms everyone was talking about.’
‘He’s nine months old so any time they have anything wrong with them it’s horrific but this, we were like ‘wow’.’
The family is now in self-isolation and she is racking her brains as to how Cassian caught the disease.
She added: ‘We wondered where he caught it because my husband and I are both fine.’
‘As bad as it sounds, the first thing we did when we heard was laugh because we just couldn’t believe this was a thing and that Cass had it.’
‘It’s so sensationalised in the media and you just hear about the worst cases. We wondered where he caught it because my husband and I are both fine.’
‘It’s so sensationalised in the media and you just hear about the worst cases. We wondered where he caught it because my husband and I are both fine.’
Myroslava Coates | Mother
‘I did panic but I cannot express how fantastic and reassuring our GP was. They said that with children this age they are diagnosing by symptoms,’ she added.
‘The doctor said babies pick up what’s going around and at the moment, that’s coronavirus.’
‘The GP said it’s going to be common and we just have to stick to the rules to protect ourselves and others.’
‘People need that reassurance of someone saying ‘it’s ok’, but that’s not being provided.’
‘We’ve been counting cases but it’s going to go past that soon so we felt like we needed to spread the news that it’s ok, it’s not as horrific as you think it could be.’
‘There are peaks and troughs but thankfully Cassian is over the worst of it.’
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