FORT WORTH, Texas — The last few days have been terrifying for Granbury mom Brittany Walker and her three-month-old baby girl, Rhen.
Walker, who happens to be a nurse, noticed a change in her daughter’s breathing.
Things quickly got worse.
“With this age, it scares you,” Walker said. “Her heart rate just kept on climbing, and her temperature - just in that hour - went from 100.3 to 101.7.”
Walker and her husband rushed their daughter to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, where she tested positive for COVID-19. Rhen spent two days in a hospital bed.
“She had a high temperature there, and her pulse was still in the 200’s … then she was almost like a blue-ish, purple all over,” Walker described.
More children are becoming ill with COVID.
During the Commissioner’s Court hearing on Tuesday, Tarrant County Public Health Director Vinny Taneja announced that the county reached a record number of COVID pediatric hospitalizations.
Taneja said that on Tuesday, 45 children were hospitalized with COVID in the county, surpassing the county’s previous peak of 44.
“We’re sky-high with COVID issues,” Taneja said.
The county’s most recent seven-day positivity rate average was 39.3%, according to data from Tarrant County Public Health. Four-out-of-five COVID tests are coming back positive in the county, according to Taneja.
“People really need to start paying attention," he urged. "I know it’s easy to ignore the numbers, but these are real folks with real illnesses. Hospitalizations are going up."
Rhen was released from the hospital Monday evening, and on Tuesday, her mother cradled her as she recovered.
“I’m still emotional,” Walker said as she fought back tears. “I’m just trying to make sure she doesn’t get worse.”