Girl, 6, who battled rare COVID-related inflammatory syndrome, gets Pfizer vaccine

PARK RIDGE, Ill. (WLS) -- At the age of 4, Amelia was one of the first children to battle multisystem inflammatory syndrome, the rare COVID-related illness.

Her parents thought it was appendicitis, but that wasn't the case as the serious illness forced her to go on a ventilator for a week.

It all comes full circle as Amelia, now 6, gets the Pfizer vaccine.

She became one of the first children to get the the shot among the newly approved 5-11 age group.

Now that Amelia is partially vaccinated, her parents say they feel a sense of relief.

They are hoping her story helps other parents get their kids vaccinated, too.

"My message has always been, I don't want another parent or another child to go through what we did. It's sometime inevitable. If there's a prevention measure that you can take you should be taking it. We trusted doctors and scientists to treat our daughter and they saved her life," said Alicia Lopez Ateca, mother.

Some children face long-term effects from multisystem inflammatory syndrome, but that has not been the case for Amelia. After a stay at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, she is fully recovered from the illness and on the way to being fully vaccinated soon.