This one-year-old girl has been hospitalised in a serious condition after becoming the worst affected when her whole family was hit by the Coronavirus.
The picture was released to show people how dangerous the virus is even for young despite the comparatively low number of juvenile victims.
In the Netherlands there are only 19 cases of children aged up to 14 among the almost 2,000 recorded as infected in the country.
But these pictures show one-year-old Medina from the town of Oegstgeest in the province of South Holland which is in the western Netherlands who is struggling to breathe.
Her grandma Brigitte told local TV the family started suffering symptoms on Monday.
She said: “They coughed a lot and was short of breath. But the youngest, Medina, had the biggest problems. She didn’t seem to be getting enough air, so they went to the doctor.”
A short while later she was hospitalised, and the family were sent home together with Medina to wait the diagnosis.
The gran said said: “A call was made at 10.30 p.m. saying that Medina had tested positive for the coronavirus. Her breathing was becoming weaker, and they asked if her mother Samira wanted to go to the hospital to be with her daughter straight away.”
She was welcomed by nursing staff with protective clothing who instantly took mother and daughter into quarantine and she has been on oxygen for the last three days.
Grandma Brigitta said: “We are really scared. Today Medina was given two litres of oxygen. If that doesn’t work, you have to go into intensive care and her mother will not be allowed to be alongside her.”
The old woman said she was also heartbroken that she could not be there with her daughter and granddaughter.
She said: “I want to hug my daughter and granddaughter, I want to hold them and be there for them. But no one is allowed to be in the department. I’m really grateful that we have social media but ultimately it’s not a substitute for actually being there. My daughter is also having a hard time. She told me, “Mum, I wish you could be had to hold me.”
Experts say they do not know how the child contacted the virus, as the entire family had spent most of the time at home on a daily basis.
She said after seeing people wandering around outside their home as if everything was still normal, she had decided to go public to warn them.
She said: “Normally I wouldn’t just tell the story, but now I have a message I want to send. Just stay home with your kids, this could happen to you too.
“Play games, sing, make it really fine in the house so that the children don’t get bored, but stay indoors. And if you want to get a breath of fresh air, do it somewhere where nobody else is.
“We have to fight this virus any way we can but we can only succeed if we do this together. We have to stay strong and just keep this up for a while, because what we experience in my family is something I would wish on nobody.”
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Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
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