6 Year Old with Epilepsy Hospitalized for Weeks with COVID-19: 'It's Not Safe for All Children'

NBC News

A 6 year old was hospitalized with COVID-19 for weeks, and her mom says she wishes her daughter had been vaccinated sooner.

Aria Shapiro and her mom, Sarah Shapiro, told NBC News Tuesday that the 6 year old had been hospitalized for 18 days at Phoenix Children's Hospital due to complications caused by coronavirus. She even spent the holidays there, celebrating from her room.

Aria, who is epileptic, has seen her condition worsen with COVID-19, Sarah told NBC News.

"COVID really, really put Aria on a turn that I have never seen her epilepsy go in," she told the outlet.

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Aria was partially vaccinated when she contracted COVID-19. When she was hospitalized, she had only received her first dose of the vaccine, said Sarah. In a separate interview with the Associated Press, Sarah said Aria was vaccinated with her first dose Dec. 17.

"We lived our life … for two years to prevent her from getting COVID, finally went for the vax, and the one thing that we didn't want to happen happened," Sarah told the AP. "It wasn't enough time for her body to build antibodies. She did end up getting COVID."

"From what I've seen with my own eyes … COVID is not safe for all children," Sarah said. "Though I know my daughter has an underlying condition, there's a lot of other people here that don't have underlying conditions where children are struggling with COVID."

Her daughter's epilepsy designates her as "medically fragile," Sarah explained, and when she experienced seizures at the hospital, doctors had to give the 6 year old a breathing tube.

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Aria is among the growing number of children landing in the hospital with COVID-19. As the omicron variant continues to spread rapidly across the country, more children than ever are being hospitalized, CNN reports.

The American Academy of Pediatrics reported that cases of COVID-19 in U.S. children have reached the highest numbers yet in the pandemic. More than 325,000 child COVID-19 cases were reported for the week ending Dec. 30, marking nearly double the number of cases recorded two weeks prior.

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