An easily misdiagnosed disease causes a 7-month-old baby to vomit black fluid

(Dan Tri) - After 2 days of continuous high fever, the child was diagnosed with upper respiratory infection and digestive disorder at a private hospital. In fact, the child was misdiagnosed and had to be hospitalized in critical condition.

On August 22, Dr. Nguyen Minh Tien, Deputy Director of the City Children's Hospital (HCMC), said that the unit had just received a 7-month-old infant (living in Tay Ninh ), admitted in a lethargic state, crying, cold limbs, low blood pressure, and bleeding in the limbs.

Children receive intensive treatment after being hospitalized (Photo: BV).

Medical history: The child had a high fever for 2 consecutive days, a little cough and runny nose, and had 2 diarrheas. After examination at a private hospital, he was diagnosed with upper respiratory infection and digestive disorders.

On the third day, the child's fever subsided, but he stopped breastfeeding, was tired, had cold hands and feet, and had rashes on his feet, so he was taken to the City Children's Hospital.

Here, test results showed increased red blood cell volume, low platelets, and increased liver enzymes. The child was diagnosed with severe dengue shock and treated with active anti-shock according to the protocol.

During treatment, the child became lethargic, vomited dark brown fluid, and had bruises at many injection sites. The child continued to receive anti-shock support, liver support, respiratory support, oxygen therapy, CPAP, non-invasive ventilation, and intubation. However, the respiratory failure continued to worsen, and doctors had to perform abdominal puncture to drain the fluid.

After nearly 10 days of intensive treatment, the child's hemodynamics, respiratory status, and liver damage improved, with no further bleeding. The patient was taken off the ventilator and was alert.

From this case, Dr. Tien warned that dengue fever can attack infants, causing atypical symptoms such as fever with cough, runny nose, sneezing, diarrhea, vomiting, etc.

The symptoms can easily be mistaken for respiratory, digestive, or infectious diseases or hand, foot, and mouth disease. Therefore, parents need to take their children to a medical facility with a pediatric department for examination and testing, to accurately determine the disease and have an appropriate treatment plan for the child.

In addition, Dr. Tien also emphasized that during the rainy season, Aedes mosquitoes thrive, and dengue fever can attack children as well as adults. The doctor recommends that parents take good preventive measures such as killing mosquitoes and larvae, sleeping under mosquito nets, and cleaning up containers.

Children need to be taken to the hospital immediately if they have a high fever lasting more than 1-2 days accompanied by signs such as restlessness, tossing and turning or lethargy, drowsiness, delirium; nosebleeds, bleeding gums or vomiting blood, black stools; abdominal pain, vomiting; cold hands and feet; lethargy, refusal to breastfeed or eat.

In addition, families can also get dengue fever vaccine for children 4 years of age and older and adults.

According to statistics from the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control (HCDC), in week 33 (from August 11 to August 17), the whole city recorded 2,517 cases of dengue fever, an increase of 38% compared to the average of the previous 4 weeks.

The total number of dengue fever cases accumulated from the beginning of the year to week 33 is 25,578. Wards and communes with high numbers of cases include Thoi Hoa, Cu Chi and Tan Hiep.

In addition, during this time, Ho Chi Minh City also recorded 572 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease, a decrease of 9% compared to the average of the previous 4 weeks.

The total number of hand, foot and mouth disease cases accumulated from the beginning of the year to this week is 19,384 cases. Wards and communes with high numbers of cases include Dong Thanh, Binh Hung Hoa and Vinh Loc.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/suc-khoe/can-benh-de-chan-doan-nham-khien-be-7-thang-tuoi-non-ra-dich-den-20250822154059672.htm