Teen saves 8-year-old brother's life with CPR after he went into coronavirus-linked cardiac arrest

Tyron  Hardowar's quick thinking saved the life of his 8-year-old brother who went into cardiac arrest at home following what doctors later revealed to be a coronavirus-related condition. The boys' father, Roup Hardowar, told CNN's Anderson Cooper last week that his youngest son, Jayden, came down with a mild fever in late April. Although he appeared to recover at the time, he came down with an upset stomach not long after. Three days later, the young boy collapsed at the Hardowars' home in Queens, New York and if it were not for his older brother, might not have made it until first responders arrived.

15-year-old Tyron's Boy Scout training kicked in when he saw Jayden collapse, prompting him to perform CPR on his brother until help arrived. Hardowar revealed that the teen kept Jayden alive long enough for first responders to revive him with a defibrillator. "I was very nervous. I had all these thoughts going through my head, but then I told myself I need to put them aside and I need to focus," said Tyron. "Once I saw him take a deep breath I was, like, 'I'm doing something right. I'm very happy that, you know, I made an impact on his life."

According to The New York Times, Jayden was hooked to a mechanical ventilator for three days before he began to improve. He returned home after spending nearly two weeks in the hospital and is recovering, said Hardowar, although he is still not yet able to communicate. The boy's father revealed that Jayden tested negative for the novel coronavirus but positive for the antibodies. He explained that when they consulted with a physician after the boy presented the fever, they were told that it was most likely the flu as he wasn't displaying any other coronavirus-related symptoms.

Hardowar said that he and his wife have no idea how Jayden might've contracted the virus and were wondering whether it could have been weeks ago, while he was still in school. "This is the mystery of what's happening with the kids today," he said, adding that doctors informed them an underlying condition that the boy had may have been "compromised as a result of the coronavirus." However, Jayden's parents previously had no clue that their son had said underlying condition. "We never knew this. And it's an underlying condition that just came about right now and the doctors believe it's as a result of the virus," said Hardowar.

Following their scary experience with the virus and its many unknown factors, Hardowar warned fellow parents to take any signs—even the non-virus-related symptoms—seriously. "At one point we (knew) that only adults and the elderly we should look at but I would say today that's not the case," he said. "We have to look at our kids and look at all the signs that are coming along. The signs are no longer COVID-related signs. They can be anything that you have to take very (seriously)."

Jayden is believed to be one of the many children affected by pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome in recent weeks. At least 150 cases of the mysterious coronavirus-linked condition in the United States are being investigated by doctors, of which most were reported in New York. Symptoms include persistent fever, inflammation, and poor function in organs such as the kidneys or heart. Affected children may also show evidence of blood vessel inflammation, such as red eyes, a bright red tongue, and cracked lips, explained Dr. Moshe Arditi, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. 

The condition appears to be a post-viral syndrome, according to Dr. Jeffrey Burns, a critical care specialist at Boston Children's Hospital. "This multisystem inflammatory syndrome is not directly caused by the virus. The leading hypothesis is that it is due to the immune response of the patient," said Burns.

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