Girl, 8, ‘frothed at the mouth' and died just DAYS after common virus ‘infected her brain'

The Sun

19-05-2025

A LITTLE girl was left "frothing at the mouth" after catching a common virus, which doctors suspect spread to her brain.
The eight-year-old rapidly deteriorated after suffering a series of seizures, which eventually left her "brain dead".
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Chinese medics handling her care said a Covid-19 infection could be to blame, after she tested positive for the virus.
"Although Covid-19 typically presents with respiratory symptoms, it can also lead to severe neurological manifestations in children," medics from the Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Centre - led by Dr Tiantian Xu - wrote.
There have been increasing case reports of the virus causing brain damage - including of acute necrotising encephalopathy, a rare but serious brain disease that can develop following a viral infection such as flu or Covid.
But there are "gaps" in doctors' knowledge of the best way to treat children experiencing "rapid-onset neurological decline" as a result of the Covid, the report authors noted.
They detailed the case of the eight-year-old girl in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases.
She developed acute necrotising encephalopathy after being infected with Covid-19, which ultimately resulted in "brain death".
The child's first symptoms included a temperature - just over 38°C - as well as a headache, a bumpy rash on her arms, legs and torso, and vomiting.
There didn't seem to be an "identifiable trigger" for the symptoms, the report authors said.
The little girl was taken to a local health clinic, where she was given medication that failed to ease her symptoms.
The next day, the eight-year-old began experienced her first tonic-clonic seizure that had her "frothing at the mouth".
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These kinds of seizures cause muscles to stiffen arms and usually the legs begin to jerk rapidly and rhythmically
The tot's "limbs stiffened and shook" and her right eye blinked during the five-minute seizure, but she returned "to a relatively good mental state" when it stopped.
This prompted the girl to be transferred to a hospital in Guangzhou.
She was still alert and responsive when she was admitted but suffered another one-minute-long seizure later that night, which left her vomiting afterwards.
What is acute necrotising encephalopathy?
Acute necrotising encephalopathy is a rare type of brain disease that occurs following a viral infection such as the flu.
People with the condition display typical symptoms of an infection at first, such as fever, cough, congestion, vomiting, and diarrhoea, for a few days.
Following these flu-like symptoms, people develop neurological problems, such as seizures, hallucinations and difficulty coordinating movements.
Eventually, most affected patients go into a coma, which usually lasts for a number of weeks.
Approximately a third of people don't survive their illness and subsequent neurological decline.
Of those who do survive, about half have permanent brain damage due to tissue necrosis, resulting in impairments in walking, speech, and other basic functions.
Source: Medline Plus
Doctors gave her antibiotics to combat a suspected infection, as well as meds to curb a build up of acids in her blood that was revealed by tests.
At midnight that night, the child became drowsy and she suffered a third seizure at 7am the next morning.
Medics were able to stop it by giving her diazepam, but the little girl fell into a "comatose state".
Tests suggested that there was a buildup of pressure in her brain.
An hour after her seizure, the tot suffered respiratory failure occurred and she had to be intubated in order to help her breathe.
She was later transferred to the Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Centre for continued treatment.
There, medics conducted a number of tests. Samples of her spit tested positive for Covid-19, while doctors found traces of rotavirus in her stool.
Meanwhile, a blood sample came back positive for Gram-positive cocci bacteria.
"Despite aggressive therapy, the patient remained in profound coma without sedation", the report authors said.
She didn't appear to feel pain, couldn't breathe for herself and didn't display "brainstem reflexes".
Two more evaluations over the next couple days led doctors to determine that the tot had been left brain dead by the virus-induced seizures - she was declares as such nine days after being admitted.
"Rotavirus was weakly positive in the stool sample, and it too can precipitate various neurological complications, including seizures and encephalitis," the report authors wrote.
"However, Covid-19 is the more likely dominant factor in this severe encephalopathy - though a co-infection scenario cannot be fully excluded.
"Without autopsy or direct pathogen detection in the brain tissue, the definitive culprit remains uncertain."
Medic's said the girl's case goes against the assumption that children and babies experience milder Covid infections.
"Our case and other published reports demonstrate that some paediatric patients can develop catastrophic neurological outcomes," they wrote.
But medics noted that they couldn't "definitively prove" that a Covid virus caused acute necrotising encephalopathy, as they didn't detect the virus in the girl's brain tissue.
"This case highlights the urgent need for early recognition of neurological complications in children with Covid-19," the report authors concluded.
"Clinicians should maintain heightened vigilance for atypical presentations, including rapid neurological deterioration post-infection."