KENTWOOD, Mich. — A West Michigan family is grieving the loss of a 5-year-old boy after he died of invasive group A strep and flu complications.
Miles McCowen got sick just before Christmas, and he passed away on New Year's Eve.
Invasive group A strep can become critical very quickly for children who get the flu.
Miles died less than a month shy of his birthday. He would've turned six on Jan. 25.
"He was a very, very happy boy. His smile would light up a room," DeAnn Bailey, his grandma, says.
His family says his smile is one of the things they'll miss the most. They say the 5-year-old from Greenville loved to color and play.
"He would just love to just roll around, just a typical boy, you know, so full of energy and so happy all the time," Amy Lee, his great aunt, says.
Just before the holidays, Miles got the flu and he was taken to a local emergency room.
"They gave him medication and got his fever down and sent him home," Bailey says.
However, Miles didn't get better. When his dad noticed big red spots on his arm and leg, Miles was rushed to Helen DeVos Children's Hospital.
"Now it's strep and influenza A, okay. Tuesday is when they actually told us he had something called streptococcal toxic shock syndrome," Lee says.
That's a blood infection caused by invasive group A strep, which Miles was treated for.
"The next day, they did the MRI on just his arm and on the spot on his leg. And then shortly after that, they determined that they needed to go in and surgically remove the infection on those two areas," Lee says.
His family says since the day Miles got sick, he had a severe headache that they told doctors about.
"The pain is on the same side where all the infection is. And why does he hurt so bad with how much medicine he's on?" Bailey says she asked hospital staff.
"And it was just, there was no response. It was never addressed," Lee says.
He was finally taken for head scans after he went into cardiac arrest. And then, doctors delivered devastating news.
"There was no brain activity, and then there was nothing else that they could do for him. And everyone's first reaction was, 'Why did you not do something? Why did you not check his brain when we asked?' And that's where we feel that there was a miss," Lee says.
In a statement, a spokesperson with the children's hospital says, "Our physicians, nurses and teams care deeply about the children and families they serve, and our hearts go out to Miles' family for their loss. Due to privacy concerns, we have no further comment."
"If you are not happy as a parent, with a diagnosis of your child or the treatment, push," Bailey says. "Do not let anybody stop you from getting full treatment for your child."
The family's only consolation is that Miles' blood type was B positive, and his organs were donated.
"He's our little hero. And he always will be," Bailey says.
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