Patient Case- Julien Bin Hamad

Julien came to RAK Hospital ER department on 27th of February 2023 with complaints of high grade fever, cough, vomiting and severe breathing difficulty, his blood oxygen saturation was low (88%).

We immediately started oxygen therapy and shifted him to the ICU, there also his blood oxygen levels were not improving on a normal oxygen mask so we decided to put him on high flow oxygen therapy via nasal cannula(HFNC).

Subsequently , his nasopharyngeal swab RT-PCR report came covid positive and chest X-Ray was also pretty bad with extensive pneumonia in both of the lungs. This was a big surprise to us as even during our peak covid time last year , we have not encountered such kind of bad pneumpnia in kids.

We put him on intravenous steroids, remisidevir and antibiotics. We also tried to make him sleep on his belly and intensive chest Physiotherapy was provided.

After 4 days of treatment continuous high flow oxygen therapy, he started showing improvement, gradually we decreased settings for high flow and finally on the 7th day he was weaned off from oxygen therapy. The next day he was shifted to ward and on 7th March and was discharged in stable condition.

Julien was the first pediatric covid patient with extensive bilateral pneumonia , managed successfully in RAK Hospital by pediatrician and ICU team.

We all were very happy to see him flying back to his country.