BUTTE — Over the summer, Liam Myers had been experiencing some mild pain in his stomach.
One day, he woke up severely sick and his health had taken a turn for the worse.
He was sent to the Western Montana Clinic in Missoula where they found out he had the Delta variant of COVID-19.
"He had C. diff, he had possible Crohn's Disease going on," said Tricia Myers, Liam's mother.
It was a perfect storm for the Delta variant to infect Liam’s intestines.
Liam was placed in isolation, which was heartbreaking for Tricia.
"I couldn’t go over to see him which ripped my heart out, so I mean, that made things ten times worse because here he was in a strange city, in a strange hospital, all by himself."
His infection is an example of a breakthrough case.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control (CD, vaccine breakthrough cases occur in only a small percentage of vaccinated people.
As of August 2, 2021, there have been more than 7,000 people hospitalized with breakthrough cases. 1,507 have died so far.
"I couldn’t go over to see him which ripped my heart out, so I mean, that made things ten times worse because here he was in a strange city, in a strange hospital, all by himself." -- Liam's mom, Tricia Myers
Dr. Lauren Willis, a pediatric gastroenterologist, is pleading with parents and those able to get vaccinated to do so because she says the future looks bleak.
"The unvaccinated children are coming into our hospital sometimes critically ill so we really, really need Montanans to be caring for their fellow citizens. It’s really important, we’re starting to see children get extremely ill and even die," said Willis.
The Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston has seen COVID positive cases rise from 3 percent to 10 percent among kids. The number of hospitalized children rose to more than 30.
In Arkansas, COVID-19 hospitalizations rose by 103 to 1,376.
Arkansas Children’s Hospital reported 27 children were hospitalized with COVID-19. Twelve patients are in intensive care. Eight are on ventilators.
Three children have died so far.
Myers hopes that she’ll be able to hold her son again.
"Right now, our main goal is to get him better and the principal at East Middle School, Keith Miller, has been fabulous working with me. He said just get him better, they’ll worry about school later and we have a wonderful team of doctors here in Butte. Everybody’s been really supportive," said Myers.
Liam's mother and doctor are hopeful he will pull through.