A mum is barred from sitting by her baby daughter’s hospital bedside due to quarantine rules as the tot battles the deadly coronavirus.
Ashley Hildebrand said brave two-month-old Ellie showed “no symptoms” prior to falling ill as she posted heartbreaking pictures of her daughter breathing through a respirator.
The devastated mum said she and partner Sean were told to self-quarantine after their baby tested positive for Covid-19.
She said on Friday, Ellie seemed “very constipated” and then “screamed for a few minutes” before struggling to breathe properly, reports the Daily Star.
When paramedics arrived at the family home in Lexington, South Carolina, her oxygen levels had dropped to 58 and Ashley said while in the hospital “she actually got hypothermic”.
“They said that small babies will sometimes get cold instead of a fever,” the mum-of-two wrote on Facebook.
“She’s on a ventilator and sedatives to give her lungs time to rest.”
But Ashley said her brave little girl is battling hard against the virus.
“Ellie definitely is not having this at all and is trying to fight the nurses every chance she gets, but that’s okay. It let’s us know she’s still strong.
“Since my daughter has it, it’s almost impossible that I DON’T have it as well,” she said in another post.
“I have had no symptoms and still don’t. I will be going into self quarantine for 11-14 days.”
South Carolina has 342 confirmed coronavirus cases.
Earlier this week, mum Courtney Watts Doster, also from the southeastern state, revealed her seven-month-old baby son Emmett Wednesday has contracted the virus – the youngest person to test positive in the US.
There have been 65,701 confirmed cases across the US so far, putting the country third for most infections behind Italy and China.
While Wednesday proved the deadliest single day so far for America since the virus reached its shores in late January with more than 200 people succumbing to the disease.
The spike saw the US’ official death toll reach 921.
Worldwide there have been more than 458,000 recorded infections and more than 280,000 deaths – with Spain having now surpassed the toll in China where the virus originated late last year.