Just a day after Enfield parents learned of a confirmed case of Enterovirus-D68 in the school district, parents of a a second elementary school student said their daughter has been diagnosed with the virus.
According to Enfield Supt. Dr. Jeffrey Shumann, a student at Nathan Hale Elementary School on Taylor Road, which serves children in Kindergarten through second grade, is receiving treatment for Enterovirus and has been out of school.
A second possible case surfaced on Wednesday in a 5-year-old student at Henry Barnard Elementary School on Sherwood Manor. Enfield parents were notified of the second potential case through the school messenger system on Thursday.
According to the girl’s parents, medical providers at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center diagnosed their daughter, Kylah Clark, with Enterovirus-D68 after she was hospitalized for wheezing and breathing problems.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not yet confirmed that diagnosis.
Kylah attended school on Monday and “was having a hard time breathing, a little bit,” according to her father, Ronald Clark. He said his daughter attended gymnastics practice that evening, then went to bed and woke up on Tuesday morning in intense pain.
“When I woke up, I was screaming, crying, and I told my mom to take me to the hospital,” Kylah said. Clark said his wife brought Kylah to CCMC around 7 a.m. on Tuesday.
“They were looking for pneumonia. They did some tests, and ultrasound,” he said. “Basically, they couldn’t figure out what it was for a while.”
He said the symptoms matched the eventual diagnosis.
“Part of this Enterovirus, they said, was a lot of aches and pains in different areas and her stomach was one of them,” Clark explained. “Her oxygen levels were very low, so the combination of everything just was rough.”
Kylah has since been treated and released, and school officials were informed of her diagnosis Wednesday night.
“Right now I am feeling a lot better,” Kylah said after leaving the hospital. She arrived home to find a big pink poster on her front door welcoming her home.
Custodial staff sanitized the wing of the Nathan Hale school where the infected child usually studies, and school officials said other schools in the district have been disinfected as a precaution.
The Enfield School System has posted information about the virus on its Web site, along with tips for safeguarding against infection.
"It sounds like the virus is present, and we are doing everything we can to protect our schools," Shumann said.
