Photo of child battling COVID-19 in a Mississippi hospital ICU goes viral
Mississippi’s only children’s hospital on Thursday shared a photo of one of eight children with COVID-19 in an intensive care unit.
Avery Mitchell is under age 12 and too young to receive the coronavirus vaccine, Children’s of Mississippi said in a Facebook post.
The hospital also has the highest number of pediatric patients with COVID since the pandemic began.
By Thursday afternoon, the post had over 5,000 shares.
The most popular comment read, “Sad that this isn’t enough to make people stop and think. Praying for these babies.”
The caption reads:
“Today, Children’s of Mississippi and the University of Mississippi Medical Center reported 28 children with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, the highest number of pediatric COVID-19 patients at the state’s only children’s hospital since the beginning of the pandemic.
“Of these hospitalized children, 100% are unvaccinated. This number includes eight children in the ICU, including five who are too young to receive the vaccine.
“Pictured is one of those kids, Avery Mitchell, as he’s being cared for by registered Nurse Taylor Curtis in the PICU of the Kathy and Joe Sanderson Tower at Children’s of Mississippi.
“The best way to protect ALL of Mississippi’s kids from COVID-19 is for everyone age 12 and up to get vaccinated.”
The hospital also said it had a parent or guardian’s permission to share the photo, and they signed a HIPAA consent form.
At a Wednesday news conference, state health officials said Mississippi is in the worst part of the pandemic so far.
There were six children on ventilators as of Wednesday, state epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said.
A fifth child died last week, a 13-year-old from Raleigh, and “we may see this more as we move forward,” Byers said.
“We need children 12 and older to be vaccinated . . . and we need parents to be vaccinated around those children.”
This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 2:17 PM.
