You are reading

8-Year-Old Richmond Hill Boy Placed on Ventilator from COVID-19 Infection

The Hardowar family in 2016, Jayden Hardowar pictured in bottom right (Roup Hardowar/ apacheis.com/)

May 5, 2020 By Allie Griffin

An otherwise healthy 8-year-old from Richmond Hill suffered heart failure and was placed on a ventilator in an intensive care unit last week— with coronavirus believed to be the culprit, according to a news report.

Jayden Hardowar, who is now recovering and is expected to survive, first came down with a fever and diarrhea in late April — then, within five days, he was intubated on a ventilator in the ICU at Cohen Children’s Hospital after suffering cardiac arrest, NBC New York reported.

No one within his family was known to have the virus, but doctors confirmed Hardowar had contracted COVID-19 after conducting an antibody test, according to the outlet. Hardowar did not have any pre-existing conditions.

His mother found the boy unresponsive in bed with blue lips last Wednesday and called 911. An ambulance rushed him to Jamaica Hospital before he was transferred to Cohen Children’s Hospital in Long Island, Hardowar’s parents told NBC.

Hardowar is one of more than a dozen children who have had similar complications across the city. In such cases, the virus causes inflammation that can send the body into a state of shock and cause organ failure, doctors and health experts said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced today that the Health Department had confirmed an additional 15 cases similar to Hardowar.

Four of the 15 have tested positive for COVID-19 and six have the antibodies for the virus, de Blasio said.

The new cases contradict earlier beliefs that the virus largely fails to affect children.

“In general we know as we’ve dealt with the coronavirus that we have not seen the same kind of impact on young people that we see on older people, particularly much older people. But something’s happened the last few days, that’s beginning to concern our Health Department,” de Blasio said of the new developments.

Health experts said the complications in children linked to COVID-19 are similar to symptoms of toxic shock syndrome or Kawasaki disease, an autoimmune illness caused by viral infections that can lead to heart damage if it’s not identified and treated early on.

“We are learning that even though children by and large are mildly affected when it comes to COVID-19 that there can be situations where they are more severely affected,” the City’s Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot said.

The complications like those experienced by Hardowar are still rare, Barbot said. However, similar cases have been found in the United Kingdom, as well as Boston and Philadelphia, she said.

Still, the NYC Health Department issued an alert Monday night asking health providers to report any patients under 21 with similar inflammatory syndromes.

De Blasio said parents should call their child’s doctor immediately if their child has persistent fever, a rash, abdominal pain and vomiting.

“If your children are experiencing these symptoms, particularly in combination, call your doctor right away,” he said. “We want to make sure that if a child is dealing with this reality, they get the support that they need.”

Other symptoms can include red eyes, brightly colored lips and tongues and swelling of the hands and feet, Barbot said.

“Generally if the condition is identified early there is definitive treatment, and there are typically no long-term consequences,” Barbot said.

email the author: news@queenspost.com
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Krishnan leads push to end city contracts with convicted landscaping company owner

Jun. 18, 2025 By Czarinna Andres

A coalition of elected officials and labor leaders is calling on the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to immediately terminate all contracts with Griffin’s Landscaping, a city contractor whose owner, Glenn Griffin, was recently sentenced to two years in federal prison for bribery and illegal dumping as part of a $2.4 million environmental crime scheme.

Teen robber wanted for snatching wallet from senior at SkyView Center in Flushing: NYPD

Police from the 109th Precinct in Flushing are looking for a young robber who targeted a senior at the Shops at SkyView Center late last month.

The teen was seen on video surveillance just inside the mall entrance at 40-24 College Point Blvd. at around 6:15 p.m. on Thursday, May 29, when he spotted a 72-year-old man and approached him from behind and snatched a wallet from his hand, police said Tuesday. The suspect ran out of the mall and was last seen traveling on foot westbound on Roosevelt Avenue toward Citi Field. The senior was not injured during the encounter. His wallet contained just $8 in cash and multiple bank cards.

Six teens wanted for beating and robbing man in daylight robbery in Flushing: NYPD

A man was beaten and robbed by a gang of teenagers in broad daylight on a residential block in Flushing, and the half dozen suspects, who range in age from 13 to 16 years old, remain at large nearly a month after the attack.

The 27-year-old victim was walking past 143-46 37th Avenue just before 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 22, when two teens approached him from behind and began punching him repeatedly with closed fists in his face, head, and right eye, causing him to fall to the ground, police said. Four other teens joined in and began to strike the victim with an umbrella, hitting him in his right eye.

Former NYS Assembly candidate from Flushing charged with wire fraud: Feds

Flushing resident Dao Yin was arrested on Friday the 13th and charged with wire fraud in Brooklyn federal court for allegedly stealing more than $160,000 in campaign matching funds from New York State taxpayers during his failed attempt as a Democratic candidate for the New York State Assembly in 2024.

Yin is accused of reporting false campaign donations — including forged signatures of purported contributors — to secure matching funds. The 62-year-old Yin was arraigned Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Vera M. Scanlon after a criminal complaint was unsealed that alleged he registered his campaign committee with the New York State Public Campaign Finance Program and submitted fraudulent forms and obtained approximately $162,800 in public matching funds as he challenged Assembly Member Ron Kim in last year’s Democratic primary.