Six-year-old reunites with medical team that helped save her after COVID-19 induced asthma

Six-year-old Kiali Vazquez Rodriguez and her family returned to HCA Florida Sarasota Doctors Hospital Monday afternoon to say thank-you to the Emergency Department team that saved her life, after she suffered from a COVID-19 induced asthma attack.

Kiali carried a pink sign inscribed with “Thank you for taking care of me when I was sick, Kiali.” She was a little shy around the gaggle of local media that awaited her arrival but perked right up when she saw the health care professionals who helped save her life – especially Dr. Fernando Rivera Alverez, who was in the department when she arrived after 3 a.m. on Aug. 21.

“The best news of all of this is she told us she wants to be a doctor one day,” nurse Nona Schrum said, just after the family and medical staff posed for a group picture.

“I was trying to convince you to be a nurse though, remember?” she said to Kiali. “You’re going to still change your mind maybe?"

Recounting an earlier conversation, Schrum said, “She could hardly talk and I said ‘What do you want to be when you grow up? Maybe a nurse?’ and she said, ‘I want to be a doctor."

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A former pediatric intensive care nurse at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Schrum quickly recognized Kiali’s breathing troubles when she arrived that night, along with her parents, Monica Rodriguez, Ricardo Vazquez, and 11-year-old sister Mali.

She said she knew "that she was teetering.”

Alverez, who had only started working at Doctors Hospital on Aug. 1, credited both that quick response and Kiali’s parents' decision to bring her to the hospital when she didn’t respond to a nebulizer at home with saving the young girl’s life.

“It's one of the worst cases I’d ever seen,” Alvarez said.

“The nurses were very quick to identify this … and called me immediately to tell me it was severe respiratory distress,” he added. “I went straight into the room and I saw her, she was not responding at the beginning.”

Unexpected asthma attack

Kiali, who has been vaccinated twice for COVID-19, contracted the disease though she was asymptomatic other than when it triggered the asthma attack, Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez stressed that she has confidence in the vaccines and Kiali would receive a booster sometime after November, once it’s medically appropriate.

Kiali’s pediatricians had not previously diagnosed her with asthma, she added.

Shei woke up that early Sunday morning coughing and after the nebulizer did not work, the family raced from their home in Palmer Ranch to the hospital.

With all that in mind, she urged other parents to trust their instincts.

“You are the best doctor for your child,” Rodriguez stressed. “Trust your instincts and reach for help.”

Dr. Janine Mylett, a pulmonologist at Doctors Hospital, stressed that COVID-19 is still dangerous.

“Right now in our community there’s less urgency to COVID and a lot of people tend to not be as concerned about it but we remain very concerned – and myself in particular – we have patients that still end up in the hospital, still end up critically ill and people that still have light threatening disease with COVID,” Mylett said. “I don’t take it lightly, I still wear my mask.”

“The people who have COVID and it becomes life-threatening, it takes the life out of the staff that take care of them too,” she added. “The nursing staff, our physicians – even ancillary services – we love patients, we become attached to them and when we lose them it’s devastating for everybody.

“So when you see somebody that can beat it gets better, we all rejoice. It’s fabulous.”

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A welcome thumbs-up

The emergency department team worked with Kiali, who started to respond once they provided her oxygen through a full-face mask that resembled a scuba mask.

“When we put that mask on her, that’s when she opened her eyes,” Alvarez recalled. “Usually a 6-year-old with that mask – sometimes they get very nervous.

“She actually did this to me,” he added, while giving a thumbs-up sign with both hands. “I can breathe, I can breathe.”

Kiali was later taken to All Children’s for continued care.

While Doctors Hospital treats children on an emergency basis, typically those children are transferred for a hospital such as All Children’s that is best suited for in-patient pediatric care.

Kiali spent two days in intensive care at All Children’s, as her condition improved.

“In All Children's they mentioned how great what you did was,” Rodriguez told Alvarez and the team. “You actually saved Kiali’s life.

“For us you’re a superhero – your whole team, everything you did,” she added. “As a parent, there’s no – scariest moment than to have your daughter’s life threatened, so thank you for all you did.”

Rodriguez said that care and compassion was evident by how the staff kept the entire family – including Mali, who was with her parents – updated.

“We definitely wanted to say thank you, wanted to show our love for them and that’s why we decided to come here and let them know how thankful we are,” Rodriguez said.

Schrum later thanked her and added, “Just doing our jobs but it certainly makes you feel like we did a great job, so thanks.”

To that, Rodriguez responded, “You were not only doing your job, you just went the extra mile because you were caring and in the line of business that you are – when you see emergencies every day – I think it’s easy to lose that touch of being caring.

“Not only were you concerned about getting Kiali better, but you were kind to us.”

Alverez, who presented Kiali with an oversized stuffed bear from the hospital team, said it was gratifying to see her doing so well.

“To see her like this, it’s the other part of medicine we don’t usually get to see,” he added. “I have a smile on my face that doesn’t go away. I’m so happy to see her so full of life and breathing normally.”

Earle Kimel primarily covers south Sarasota County for the Herald-Tribune and can be reached at earle.kimel@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription to the Herald-Tribune.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Kiali Vazquez Rodriguez visits with medical team that saved her life