Get vaccinated, urge teen’s family
A LOCAL teenager and his family are encouraging people who are vaccine-hesitant to get vaccinated against Covid-19 after the 15-year-old spent five days in intensive care after contracting the virus, and was told by doctors that he was lucky to be alive.
Joud Ismail was diagnosed with a rare illness called Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome (PIMS), which can affect adolescents and children around three to four weeks after they have had Covid-19.
At the end of September the teenager, who had no underlying health conditions and had always been strong and enjoyed sport, became severely ill and at one point was just hours away from being flown to Southampton Hospital.
He managed to get better, and is now back at the Grammar School and getting back to a normal life.
His mum, Mo Ismail, who works in healthcare, said it had been a horrendous and traumatic experience.
‘In the middle of it all people would say “how are you?” and I used the word “broken” a lot. “I’m broken but I’m going to be mended”. I was exhausted, I was terrified, we were traumatised. ICU is awful, the staff are amazing, but it’s awful.
‘It goes round and round in my head constantly, but as the weeks go on it gets less, but we both feel really strongly that the story needs to be told because we don’t want other people to go through this.
‘He’s six foot two, he plays footie, he hadn’t been to the GP in four years, but look what we’ve been through.
‘If it makes just a few more parents take their kids for a vaccine, it’ll make me very happy.
‘If it increases vaccination rates so that more people are protected, that’ll be great.’
The adults in the Ismail family were all fully vaccinated and Joud had wanted to get vaccinated as soon as his 12 to 15-year-old age group were allowed, but he became ill before that phase of the inoculation programme started.
Joud’s memories of being in ICU are hazy, but he remembers being unable to move, being woken up all the time, hearing the sound of machines beeping, and sometimes he felt a little bit frightened.
‘It’s only during half-term week that I’ve been able to go back to a sort of normal life, I can ride my bike and see my friends more,’ he said.
‘It was such a big setback.
‘I’m in my GCSE year, when I got back to school I’d missed four weeks of one of the most important years in school.
‘I think it’s better if people get protected with the vaccine, it will make everyone safer.
‘If my friends ask me if they should get the vaccine, I tell them “yes, just do it’’.’
