The mother of a girl who became infected with rotavirus and died in Sochi revealed the circumstances of the tragedy

In Sochi, 7-year-old Masha from Yekaterinburg died in the intensive care unit of a local hospital from cerebral and pulmonary edema. The girl contracted rotavirus infection and was hospitalized after swimming in the Black Sea. Masha fell into a coma and died two weeks later. The Investigative Committee and the regional prosecutor’s office are looking into the circumstances of her death.

Masha and her parents arrived “at sea” in the village of Lazarevskoye on August 14. On the fourth day of rest, after swimming, she became very ill: “Suddenly she had a headache, she vomited like a fountain,” says Masha’s mother, Elena. Then the girl began to lose consciousness, her pupils became enlarged, and her muscles began to cramp.

Her parents tried to give her some medications like activated charcoal, but the girl began to lose consciousness and an ambulance was called. But the brigade “traveled too long.” Then Masha, who was half-fainting, was taken by taxi by her parents to a local hospital, where the girl fell into a coma.

Elena claims that at the local Lazarevsky hospital they had to stand in line with children who had similar symptoms. Then Masha was placed in a general ward, but things worsened and she was taken to intensive care. From there, taking into account the severity of the girl’s condition, she was transported to Sochi, where infectious disease specialists isolated rotavirus from her.

There was a plan to transport the child to a Moscow hospital on a special plane equipped with a resuscitator and other necessary equipment. But her condition was recognized as “extremely serious, with negative dynamics.” And the doctors decided that Masha would not survive the transportation. Then the girl developed cerebral edema. She died without coming out of a coma on September 8.

“At 20:45 my girl’s heart stopped! Now we need to transport my baby’s body, we don’t yet understand how,” Elena said. For two weeks, thousands of people worried about the girl and her family and offered help. The scammers did not fail to take advantage of this by announcing a fake fundraiser for Masha. Now the investigation will look into the circumstances of the child’s death, the quality and timeliness of the assistance provided to her.

“Rotavirus infection, which is also popularly called “intestinal flu,” has nothing to do with influenza,” says pediatrician Evgeniy Serdobinsky. — This is a viral enteritis caused by damage to the body from an RNA virus.

Enterovirus and norovirus have similar symptoms – the latter more often affects adults, is more easily tolerated than other “intestinal” viruses, but has the peculiarity of causing lightning-fast and uncontrollable gastric emptying.

Rotavirus type A is one of the most dangerous viruses for children under 5 years of age. Despite the development of medicine, it still contributes to infant mortality statistics, so I always advise vaccinating children under 2 years of age against it. But for older children and even adults, the virus can be dangerous in “large quantities” if you pick up many particles at once, and they number in the trillions.

“I swam in the sea and immediately fell ill” – this is unlikely; its incubation period is from one to several days. But the fact that she could find him in the water is quite likely. The main route of transmission of rotavirus viral particles is fecal-oral. And if there are a lot of vacationers and one of them is sick, infection is more than possible.

The main danger of rotavirus is dehydration, or dehydration. Accordingly, here it is necessary to help the stomach expel toxins, with enterosgel, for example, and fight for liquid. Spoon-feed the child and apply anti-dry eye remedies into the eyes, if available. Take rehydron powder with you on vacation with your children, it prevents dehydration. But with such an acute onset of the disease, with fainting, of course, infusion therapy was needed in a hospital setting, the sooner the better.