Kaydriana Asher, 16 years old, posted this image to Twitter on Jun. 29, 2020 showing herself hospitalized due to COVID-19. Asher was the first COVID-19 patient at St. Rose Dominican Hospital Siena Campus in Henderson. (Courtesy of Kaydriana Asher via Twitter @kaydeegrace132).
It started out innocently enough for Kaydriana Asher.
Two weeks ago, the 16-year-old Green Valley High School student and Las Vegas resident noticed she had a slight runny nose, a symptom she attributed to allergies and being out in the heat. Today, she’s recovering from COVID-19 and is hopeful that by sharing her story on social media and elsewhere more people — including teens — will take the deadly virus more seriously.
The day after Asher developed the runny nose, a Sunday, she woke up and her sniffles were gone. But later in the day, she began to be bothered by a “very, very sore throat.”
That night, Asher’s symptoms grew worse and she went to bed. Monday, she woke up with a sore throat, muscle aches throughout her body, and chills.
The decision was made: She would be tested for the coronavirus.
Asher didn’t believe she had COVID-19. She wasn’t all that worried because she had been cautious, mostly staying home since mid-March once the pandemic hit and wearing a mask when she left. As her mother, Sandra Asher, puts it, “She’s very responsible.”
Back home and awaiting test results, Kaydriana Asher self-quarantined. Tuesday at breakfast, she noticed the milk she was using was past its expiration date. She poured some in a cup to smell if it had gone bad. She couldn’t smell anything. Then she noticed she couldn’t smell Tabasco sauce.
After a restless night of sleep, Kaydrianna Asher woke up Wednesday feeling worse still. She labored so hard at breathing and her chest was so tight, she called her mom at work. Her mom rushed home and the two headed to St. Rose Dominican Hospitals' Siena campus.
There, doctors ordered a chest X-ray, which didn’t show severe inflammation. Her lungs didn’t sound congested — two signs of the illness. Hospital staff suggested she had anxiety.
But she sensed it was worse, even though children ages 10-19 only account for 7% of the nearly 20,000 infections in Nevada, and children ages 5-17 account for 4.4% of the 2.7 million infections nationally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I couldn’t breathe, so it did freak me out,” she said. “I knew what it felt like to be out of breath, but this was getting up to go to the bathroom two minutes and being winded for 45.”
Staff gave Kaydriana Asher a sedative, and a nasal swab coronavirus test as a precaution.
She was preparing to go back home when the doctor returned with news nobody wants to hear: She had tested positive for the virus.
“A part of me felt very embarrassed to have gotten COVID,” she said. “At first, I was like, ‘I’ve been wearing my mask. This makes me look irresponsible.’”
Kaydriana Asher spent about 10 hours in the emergency room at St. Rose Dominican-Siena before she was sent home with steroids and an inhaler. The breathing treatments provided immediate relief but didn’t last long.
Three days later, she said her head felt like “a hot air balloon about to pop,” and like weights were sitting on her chest.
“She called me crying saying, ‘I don’t think I can breathe right. I know I’m breathing ... but I don’t feel like I can get the air out,’” Sandra Asher said.
They were immediately back at the hospital.
After running a series of tests, hospital staff labeled Kaydriana Asher as being “in the red zone” and admitted her to the hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit. The family said she was the first coronavirus patient to be admitted to the unit. Other children had tested positive for coronavirus at the hospital, “but they went home,” Sandra Asher said.
Kaydriana Asher’s pain fluctuated from a steady ache to excruciating. The only time she wasn’t hurting was when she was asleep.
Her mother was there with her, but she couldn’t hug her mom. “It felt like I was just literally alone,” she said.
She received doses of steroids and potassium via an intravenous tube. Everyone was relieved she didn’t need to be intubated. She left the hospital Monday to recover at home after medical staff ran a number of tests checking her cardiac, liver and kidney functions before discharging her. Doctors expect it will likely take four to six weeks until she is fully recovered.
“She was totally out of danger in those areas,” her mother said. “We’re keeping positive she’s not going to be going back.”
By Wednesday, she was able to breathe better but was still weak and only sleeping in three-hour spurts.
“They’re telling me that’s normal,” Kaydriana Asher said.
How she got coronavirus is a mystery. She notified the few people she had been in contact with and none of them tested positive, including her mom.
“We can’t actually put any blame anywhere … we can always speculate, but that’s it,” Sandra Asher said.
Kaydriana Asher isn’t sitting idle in her recovery from the life-threatening illness, taking to social media with a long Twitter thread about her struggles. The posts include photos of her struggling to breathe or in the ICU with many tubes coming out of her stomach. It’s a dramatic sight, but one she’s eager to share.
The thread has been retweeted 36,500 times and counting.
One responder on Twitter, @RacerX57217102 said, “Thank you for sharing your experience. I hope this helps young and older people alike realize that COVID-19 does not discriminate. Please be well and God bless you.” Many others echoed the sentiments, including Adriana Martinez, @lvadriana1, who tweeted, “Thank you for posting this. You are such a brave young girl. Hopefully more people read your story and take this COVID virus seriously.”
While adults make up most of the known COVID-19 cases worldwide, it’s also found its way to all age groups.
And that’s why Kaydriana Asher is urging other teenagers to be cautious.
“I feel like I’m educating others but getting educated myself. That’s all I could really ask for because I could be doing better too. Everyone can probably be doing better,” Asher said.