What led to the death of 7-year-old Shreyash?

Mera bachcha chala gaya lekin kisi aur ka bachcha nahi jaye bas yahi dua karta hoonrdquo I lost my son do not want any other parent to lose their child is my prayer said Raju Vhorkate 33 a resident of Sector 2 Kalamboli in Panvel Municipal Corporation His sevenyearold son Shreyash passed away on July 7 after being diagnosed with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children MISC which is a postCovid complication usually seen in children But Shreyash was never treated for Covid19 and never showed any symptoms of it claimed VhorkateThe sudden demise of Shreyash a Std II student has left not only his parents but even his doctors baffled as his condition deteriorated within a span of a few hoursShreyashrsquos parents and younger sister Shreya 4 are inconsolable The parents are clueless as to what happened to Shreyash who had never ever visited a doctor for a serious reason until last weekendStarted with feverAccording to Raju who runs a transport business Shreyash had a fever on July 2 but after his mother gave him some medicine he was normal and played the entire day On Saturday at 530 am he again developed a highgrade temperatureldquoWe gave him some medicine again and he was fine When he began to vomit I took him to a local paediatrician as we suspected it to be a case of food poisoning Shreyash had some junk food the previous day The doctor examined and subsequently got him admitted for observationrdquo said RajuRaju added ldquoOther than the 104 plus temperature he was conscious However by Saturday evening Shreyash developed convulsions and became serious and slipped into an unconscious state We shifted him to a private childrenrsquos hospital in New Panvel He was shifted to the ICU and later put on life supportrdquoldquoThe paediatricians at the hospital conducted numerous tests even to check if he had Covid19 They said he could have been asymptomatic He was then diagnosed with Paediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children MISCrdquo said RajuThe doctors requested the family to arrange for a Tocilizumab injection which is now restricted and not available across counters They also asked Nidhi Choudhary collector Raigad and Guardian Minister Aditi Tatkare for help Soon after the injection was administered Shreyash showed some improvement by passing urine and stool but never came out of the brain damage due to lack of blood pressure during the convulsions He finally breathed his last on July 7ldquoThe doctors informed us that MISC causes fever in children which lasts for a few days but death due to MISC is not common Many children in the various age groups are being treated at home for similar symptoms mdash fever vomiting diarrhoea etc but they get back to normal eventually Only my Shreyash could not fight it Both he and his sister Shreya spent time at home and none of us in the family including their grandparents had any Covid19 symptoms ever If Shreyash as doctors claim had Covid a few months ago he would have shown some symptomsrdquo said an emotional RajuAlso readCovid19 cases in Mumbai remain stablelsquoAn aggressive casersquoDr Pankaj Titar from the NMMC Covid Care Centre from Kharghar said ldquoMISC and multiinflammatory syndrome in neonates is a dreaded complication that can happen to children 34 weeks after Covid exposure If cases rise then in the third wave medical apparatus will have to deal with two front challenges mdash it will have to engage with Covid19 cases and on the other it will have to put up a front against MISC The cases found in Panvel region should be documented by the municipal corporation but I am yet to see a case as aggressive as Shreyashrsquos in Navi Mumbai and PanvelrdquoldquoChildren mostly are asymptomatic in Covid19 but in MISC they may have fever abdominal pain diarrhoea and in severe crisis they may also suffer from heart failure and encephalopathy Early diagnosis is the key The government should invest in NICU and PICUs simultaneously as 2 per cent children suffering from MISC may require ventilators The national technical advisory group on immunisation should also hurry up with the study to immunise childrenrdquo the doctor saidDr Mahesh Mohite who runs Sai Child Care Hospital New Panvel where Shreyash was treated said ldquoShreyash was brought in a critical condition the pumping power of the heart had drastically come down to 10 per cent and we had to immediately put him on ventilator support and started all the emergency lines of treatment in the ICU to revive him We had even started steroid treatmentrdquo Dr Mohite said ldquoOn average every week I examine one or two cases of MISC and since last August till date I have seen almost 55 to 60 cases 35 to 40 cases during first wave and 20 cases during second wave till date But most children respond well to the treatment and symptoms subside with prompt timely treatment Unfortunately Shreyash is the only child who could not be savedrdquo