The nursing mother of a 13-year-old boy who died of COVID-19 after a coughing crisis described how her blood was spilled over the hospital wall, while urging Americans to take the pandemic seriously.
Peyton Baumgarth, who had asthma and a thyroid problem, died of COVID-19 complications on October 31 just six days after showing symptoms.
Peyton’s devastated mother, Stephanie Franek, a 44-year-old nurse and mother of two, had taken him to a Missouri hospital just two days earlier after his condition suddenly deteriorated as his beds his nails darkened and he struggled to speak easily.
He then suffered a severe cough in the ICU at Cardinal Glennon SSM Children’s Hospital in St. Louis and died because doctors were unable to increase his blood oxygen levels.
Peyton Baumgarth, who had asthma and thyroid problems, died Oct. 31 when he suffered a severe cough in the ICU at Cardinal Glennon SSM Children’s Hospital, St. Louis.
Peyton’s devastated mother, Stephanie Franek, 44, had taken him to the hospital just two days earlier after his condition suddenly worsened as his nail beds darkened and he struggled to speak lightly. .
Franek discussed the last moments of her son to remind us that children can also die from the virus.
The tragic death of the 13-year-old took place just six weeks before his aunt – who was also a nurse – died of the deadly virus.
Peyton’s troubled mother told The Sun that she tested positive for the virus on October 25, and both she and her son began to show mild symptoms.
Franek said Peyton’s symptoms did not appear to be life-threatening and that they were only quarantining their time watching Netflix together.
But on Oct. 29, she said she noticed her son took a turn for the worse.
Peyton’s fingernails and toenails turned blue and he struggled to hold a conversation, she said.
The mother in question took her son to the hospital that day, where doctors found that his oxygen saturation had dropped to 44% – less than half the level of a healthy person.
Franek said she was shocked by this, because, as a nurse, “I did not see anyone walking and talking with an oxygen saturation level of only 44%.”
Within an hour, Peyton was fitted with a ventilator and given extracorporeal membrane oxygenation – a treatment that replaces the person’s own lung function by pumping blood to an artificial lung that adds oxygen and removes carbon dioxide.
Franek told the press that he still believes that “we will cross the hump and bring him home.”
But two days later, on October 31, Peyton deteriorated rapidly and began to have a cough and a hemorrhage in his chest.
The tragic death of the 13-year-old (even with his mother) came just six weeks before his aunt died of the virus.
“She had this severe coughing fit and she was practically starting to have a bleeding in her chest,” she said.
Doctors performed CPR and tried to replace the ECMO tubes in his throat to increase his oxygen levels, which caused the blood that had collected in his chest to spray all over the surgeons and the hospital walls, his mother said.
“He was a cardiothoracic surgeon everywhere and he continued to work,” she said.
A team of 10 nurses and four doctors desperately tried to save him, but could not, and Franek saw her son die.
Franek then received another blow six weeks later, when her sister died on December 7 due to COVID-19.
Cyndi Crawford, a 57-year-old trauma nurse, contracted the virus a week before Thanksgiving and was also put in a ventilator and given ECMO before she died.
“A single loss would have been heartbreaking on its own, but these two have completely shattered our hearts,” Franek said.
Franek said she was shocked that her son died of COVID-19 because it is usually not as deadly to children.
“I never thought that would happen,” she said.
“You don’t hear about the children who make Covid and it’s so serious. I was just shocked.
“I can’t describe that sudden devastating loss.”
Franek said she wants to share her son’s story to warn people to take the virus seriously and not see COVID-19 as a “political” thing.
“I hope people will take Covid more seriously and not say it’s a political agenda or a fake type of news or that it’s like the flu,” she said.
She said her family was “so careful” during the pandemic, but still fell ill.
We were very careful. If we ever went anywhere, we always wore masks and always washed our hands and used a hand sanitizer and still received Covid, ”she warned.
Peyton’s troubled mother told The Sun that she tested positive for the virus on October 25, and both she and her son began to show mild symptoms. On October 29, she took him to the hospital, when his nail beds turned blue
Doctors found that his oxygen saturation had dropped to 44% – less than half the level of a healthy person
Franek told the press that he still believes that “we will cross the hump and bring him home.” But two days later, on October 31, Peyton died
She said that although “every day is a struggle to get out of bed”, she found some comfort when she reunited with her ex Chris Lottmann, who “was very close to Peyton”.
Franek paid tribute to her son, describing him as “the sweetest boy” who “made everyone smile.”
A recent study by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that one million children had been diagnosed with COVID-19 since November 12, accounting for 11.5 percent of all cases in the United States at the time.
At that time, 133 children died, which means that the mortality rate was 0.01%, while between 0.5% and 6.1% of all cases of COVID-19 for children led to hospitalization. .
Children are usually at a lower risk of becoming seriously ill or dying of coronavirus, with the CDC reporting that the risk of severe disease increases with age.
Nationally, nearly 17.5 million people of all ages have now been infected and 313,000 have died.
Hospitalizations reached record levels on Friday, with 114,751 patients across America, according to the COVID follow-up project.
Cases also rose by 228,825 in a single day, while another 2,751 people died.
