FARGO — Local doctors are using one little boy's story to urge parents to look out for symptoms that often go misdiagnosed. Chett Sailer developed a rash that wasn't itchy or painful, but came with a fever that wouldn't go away. The culprit ended up being chronic arthritis.
It's been a long, yet successful journey for the Sailer family and Sanford's multidisciplinary clinic in Fargo. When Chett was just six months old, he started having back-to-back high fever episodes that lasted for several months. His parents turned to the Sanford Children's Hospital.
"His inflammatory markers were kind of through the roof at that point," Ciarrin Sailer, Chett's mother, said. That's where he developed a rash. "So, they had us hospitalized that night, and then discharged us," Ciarrin said.
The fever and rash didn't go away and they ended up back in the hospital. Doctors initially thought Chett had a disorder called “Kawasaki Disease”, which causes an inflammation of blood vessels, and they started antibody therapy, but Chett still didn’t respond to the medication. "When having any kid that has a prolonged fever, the differential diagnosis of a list of possibilities is very broad," Dr.
Christopher Failing, a pediatric rheumatologist at Sanford Children's Hospital, said. With the help of a pediatric infectious disease physician, they discovered that Chett has systemic-onset juvenile arthritis. Failing said the cause is unknown, but the disease can have different subtypes that can impa.