Aurora girl who battled rare MISC-C illness eager to get COVID vaccine

AURORA, Ill. (WLS) -- Paige Rossin loves food, so when the 7-year-old from Aurora lost her appetite, among other things, last December, her mother knew something was wrong.

"She had a 104 degree temperature, she wasn't going to the bathroom, she was laying down, and wasn't eating, "said Alyssa Bendersky, mother.

Paige was so sick, she was rushed to Rush University Medical Center's pediatric intensive care unit, where she was diagnosed with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome, also known as MIS-C.

"We know it's a post-COVID post-viral syndrome where it's an exaggerated inflammatory process which happens through the body," said Dr. Josh Murphy, head of pediatric cardiology at Rush.

Murphy was particularly concerned about Paige's heart.

"Her heart rate was up, her blood pressure low, she had elevation in her cardiac enzymes, she was sick," he said.

While rare, MIS-C develops in children weeks after they have COVID. In Paige's case, no one knew she had the virus because she was asymptomatic.

Whether it's MIS-C or mild symptoms, Rush has treated several kids for COVID.

"We did see quite a bit of COVID in kids, certainly not as much in adults, we did see a wide spectrum of severity," said Dr. Collen Nash, pediatric infectious diseases doctor at Rush.

While Paige has made a full recovery, her mother said she'll be first in line for the COVID vaccine when it's available to her age group.

"I think it is really important," Bendersky said. "I don't want a mom to ever have to go through what I went through."

And Paige, who earned two stuffed and an American Girl doll for the dozens of times she was "poked" in the hospital, said she is willing to get another one for the vaccine.

"Cause then you won't get COVID and won't get sick," she said.

After she was so sick, Paige is the first to tell her classmates to keep their masks on and in a few days she'll be the first to tell them to get the vaccine.