RICHLAND, WA – Rozay Saldaña, is a happy and healthy 7-year old girl, with no underlying health conditions. However, in August, her health took a turn for the worse after getting Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome, or MIS-C. MIS-C is a rarer complication from COVID-19 that affects children and teens. The average age of the 5,973 cases and 52 deaths nationwide from 2020-2021 is as young as 9 years old.
It all started the day the family went to the Benton County Fair.
“The kids were petting the animals and we were having a nice family day after quarantine-ing from COVID for more than 2 weeks and we all tested negative,” said Jonathan Saldaña, Rozay’s father. He explained he had the worst COVID symptoms.
“I’ve never been that sick before in my life,” said Jonathan.
Krystal Tiscareno, Rozay’s mom, and Jonathan’s wife, as well as Lyric Saldaña, their 8-year old daughter, had a fever and milder symptoms while Rozay was asymptomatic.
After a few hours at the fair, Rozay complained of her stomach hurting.
“She really wasn’t feeling well so I called my mom to take her home,” said Krystal.
A few hours later, when they picked up Rozay, Krystal said Rozay was running a 105 fever. She proceeded to take her to Trios where they gave her anti-nausea medicine and tested her for COVID, which came back negative.
“I made an appointment with her pediatrician the next day,” said Krystal.
But Rozay still did not feel any better.
“I had to have my sister come and help out because I didn’t sleep for four days. I was up all night with Rozay who had fevers and bad stomach pain,” said Krystal.
Rozay’s pediatrician prescribed an antibiotic in case she had an infection. It was the next day that Krystal noticed Rozay was having a bad rash. Krystal’s sister eventually woke her up from a nap with the news that Rozay could not breathe well.
It was then that Krystal took her to Kadlec, where they waited in the lobby for about an hour and a half.
“Once we got into the room, she passed out and was so lethargic. She’d only wake up to complain about how bad she felt,” said Krystal.
Later, Rozay woke up screaming that her heart felt like it was going to rip out of her chest.
“Luckily, a nurse was in the room who hooked her up to a bunch of monitors and everything started beeping,” said Krystal.
Her heart rate was 160 beats per minute and her blood pressure was down 60 over 35.
“Little by little her room started filling up with more doctors and nurses.” It was then that she texted her husband and said he needed to come.
That’s when they first said she potentially had MIS-C and also added Rozay was going into acute kidney renal failure.
“The doctor comes in and says ‘we’ve already given her three times the amount of fluids for someone her size and it’s not working. We are going to have to airlift her out to Spokane because we don’t have the staff or equipment to do what she needs.” said Krystal.
“Due to protocols from COVID-19, they said only one parent could go with her, and without a doubt in my mind that was mama. So Krystal went with her and I stayed behind to take care of our other daughter and the house,” said Jonathan.
“The doctors needed to do a pick line that goes through her neck into her heart for her medication and fluids and if they needed to draw blood. They also needed to put an IV into an artery in her arm so they could detect her heart rate and blood pressure every second,” explained Krystal.
She slept for almost a day. The next couple of days she seemed to be doing better.
But the day after, things turned for the worse.
“Our nightmare came back and hit us hard that day,” said Jonathan.
“That night they had to put her on oxygen. As she would sleep her oxygen levels would drop dangerously low. She basically wasn’t breathing.” said Krystal.
If high-flow oxygen wasn’t going to work, the Spokane doctors said they’d have to intubate her.
The next day, Rozay was swollen and her lungs were retaining too much fluid. Because her skin hurt and was too swollen, they couldn’t touch her that well.
“You’d touch her and she’d scream out in pain,” said Krystal.
The doctor came in the next day and said “What we didn’t want to happen, happened. She is going into heart failure and could die if things don’t get better.” remembered Krystal. “That crushed me. Those are the worst words any mother wants to hear. She’s supposed to outlive me, not the other way around.”
At that point, they knew this was MIS-C, the rare COVID complication in children.
“Her little heart was overcompensating for her dilated blood vessels and other organs. One by one her organs were shutting down,” said Jonathan.
It was at that point that the Spokane doctors had to contact Seattle to have a team of rheumatoid cardiologists help advice on the case.
With a plethora of steroids, medications, procedures, and more than 2 weeks later, Rozay was miraculously stabilized enough to come home.
Rozay has been meeting with a cardiologist for about two months after to make sure she was still okay, and it was.
She still will need doctor visits and won’t be able to actively play for a few more months. Because of the severity of MIS-C, she will need to have another check-up next year. But Krystal and Jonathan are relieved to have her home.
“We thank God and the doctors that they worked so hard to advocate and bring our baby home and so that now we have more time to enjoy with her,” said Jonathan and Krystal.
Another thing these parents did when they returned from the hospital, was get vaccinated.
“We were not vaccinated before. We thought this was all a joke and thought it was like “eh, it’s the flu.” It wasn’t until we actually went through something like this that we realized okay this is not the flu.” said Krystal. “We need to protect ourselves in order to protect our kids.”
“It’s sad but people never really take it seriously until it’s in front of them and you have to look at your daughter hooked up to all these machines trying to help her just make it through the night and keep her breathing. People are that way and we were that way at one time not taking COVID seriously. But that all changed when our daughter almost died.” said Jonathan. “We chose to get vaccinated to protect not just her but also us and the rest of the people we are around.”
The CDC says that the best way to protect your child from MIS-C is first protecting against COVID-19, by getting vaccinated.
Jonathan and Krystal are relieved to have her home, but say that this illness will be in the back of their minds for a while.
“Every time she coughs we’ll wonder if she okay is something wrong with her heart, and so on,” said Jonathan.
But mom and dad agree, Rozay, is the miraculous product of the doctors’ efforts.
In a Facebook post, Krystal wrote “Jonny & I will always celebrate the little baby steps in her recovery because we saw our daughters almost lifeless body just lay there.”
“She is a fighter,” said Jonathan.
Rozay said she is happy to be home and has dreams of being a teacher when she grows up.RICHLAND, WA – Rozay Saldaña, is a happy and healthy 7-year old girl, with no underlying health conditions. However, in August, her health took a turn for the worse after getting Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome, or MIS-C. MIS-C is a rarer complication from COVID-19 that affects children and teens. The average age of the 5,973 cases and 52 deaths nationwide from 2020-2021 is as young as 9 years old.
It all started the day the family went to the Benton County Fair.
“The kids were petting the animals and we were having a nice family day after quarantine-ing from COVID for more than 2 weeks and we all tested negative,” said Jonathan Saldaña, Rozay’s father. He explained he had the worst COVID symptoms.
“I’ve never been that sick before in my life,” said Jonathan.
Krystal Tiscareno, Rozay’s mom, and Jonathan’s wife, as well as Lyric Saldaña, their 8-year old daughter, had a fever and milder symptoms while Rozay was asymptomatic.
After a few hours at the fair, Rozay complained of her stomach hurting.
“She really wasn’t feeling well so I called my mom to take her home,” said Krystal.
A few hours later, when they picked up Rozay, Krystal said Rozay was running a 105 fever. She proceeded to take her to Trios where they gave her anti-nausea medicine and tested her for COVID, which came back negative.
“I made an appointment with her pediatrician the next day,” said Krystal.
But Rozay still did not feel any better.
“I had to have my sister come and help out because I didn’t sleep for four days. I was up all night with Rozay who had fevers and bad stomach pain,” said Krystal.
Rozay’s pediatrician prescribed an antibiotic in case she had an infection. It was the next day that Krystal noticed Rozay was having a bad rash. Krystal’s sister eventually woke her up from a nap with the news that Rozay could not breathe well.
It was then that Krystal took her to Kadlec, where they waited in the lobby for about an hour and a half.
“Once we got into the room, she passed out and was so lethargic. She’d only wake up to complain about how bad she felt,” said Krystal.
Later, Rozay woke up screaming that her heart felt like it was going to rip out of her chest.
“Luckily, a nurse was in the room who hooked her up to a bunch of monitors and everything started beeping,” said Krystal.
Her heart rate was 160 beats per minute and her blood pressure was down 60 over 35.
“Little by little her room started filling up with more doctors and nurses.” It was then that she texted her husband and said he needed to come.
That’s when they first said she potentially had MIS-C and also added Rozay was going into acute kidney renal failure.
“The doctor comes in and says ‘we’ve already given her three times the amount of fluids for someone her size and it’s not working. We are going to have to airlift her out to Spokane because we don’t have the staff or equipment to do what she needs.” said Krystal.
“Due to protocols from COVID-19, they said only one parent could go with her, and without a doubt in my mind that was mama. So Krystal went with her and I stayed behind to take care of our other daughter and the house,” said Jonathan.
“The doctors needed to do a pick line that goes through her neck into her heart for her medication and fluids and if they needed to draw blood. They also needed to put an IV into an artery in her arm so they could detect her heart rate and blood pressure every second,” explained Krystal.
She slept for almost a day. The next couple of days she seemed to be doing better.
But the day after, things turned for the worse.
“Our nightmare came back and hit us hard that day,” said Jonathan.
“That night they had to put her on oxygen. As she would sleep her oxygen levels would drop dangerously low. She basically wasn’t breathing.” said Krystal.
If high-flow oxygen wasn’t going to work, the Spokane doctors said they’d have to intubate her.
The next day, Rozay was swollen and her lungs were retaining too much fluid. Because her skin hurt and was too swollen, they couldn’t touch her that well.
“You’d touch her and she’d scream out in pain,” said Krystal.
The doctor came in the next day and said “What we didn’t want to happen, happened. She is going into heart failure and could die if things don’t get better.” remembered Krystal. “That crushed me. Those are the worst words any mother wants to hear. She’s supposed to outlive me, not the other way around.”
At that point, they knew this was MIS-C, the rare COVID complication in children.
“Her little heart was overcompensating for her dilated blood vessels and other organs. One by one her organs were shutting down,” said Jonathan.
It was at that point that the Spokane doctors had to contact Seattle to have a team of rheumatoid cardiologists help advice on the case.
With a plethora of steroids, medications, procedures, and more than 2 weeks later, Rozay was miraculously stabilized enough to come home.
Rozay has been meeting with a cardiologist for about two months after to make sure she was still okay, and it was.
She still will need doctor visits and won’t be able to actively play for a few more months. Because of the severity of MIS-C, she will need to have another check-up next year. But Krystal and Jonathan are relieved to have her home.
“We thank God and the doctors that they worked so hard to advocate and bring our baby home and so that now we have more time to enjoy with her,” said Jonathan and Krystal.
Another thing these parents did when they returned from the hospital, was get vaccinated.
“We were not vaccinated before. We thought this was all a joke and thought it was like “eh, it’s the flu.” It wasn’t until we actually went through something like this that we realized okay this is not the flu.” said Krystal. “We need to protect ourselves in order to protect our kids.”
“It’s sad but people never really take it seriously until it’s in front of them and you have to look at your daughter hooked up to all these machines trying to help her just make it through the night and keep her breathing. People are that way and we were that way at one time not taking COVID seriously. But that all changed when our daughter almost died.” said Jonathan. “We chose to get vaccinated to protect not just her but also us and the rest of the people we are around.”
The CDC says that the best way to protect your child from MIS-C is first protecting against COVID-19, by getting vaccinated.
Jonathan and Krystal are relieved to have her home, but say that this illness will be in the back of their minds for a while.
“Every time she coughs we’ll wonder if she okay is something wrong with her heart, and so on,” said Jonathan.
But mom and dad agree, Rozay, is the miraculous product of the doctors’ efforts.
In a Facebook post, Krystal wrote “Jonny & I will always celebrate the little baby steps in her recovery because we saw our daughters almost lifeless body just lay there.”
“She is a fighter,” said Jonathan.
Rozay said she is happy to be home and has dreams of being a teacher when she grows up.
