Kenny Kajan, 13, inherited his mother’s love for birds but found himself suffering flu-like symptoms, including a cough and high temperatures, before needing to go to hospital
A young boy was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with a lung disease, caused by his pet parrots.
Kenny Kajan, 13, wanted to be a breeder and biologist when he grew up and grew up alongside four of the tropical birds. But, now, he can’t even be close to birds in public or use a feather pillow after his pet birds put him in hospital.
Kenny’s mum Iveta, who lives in Leith, Edinburgh, with her husband and three sons, grew up alongside the birds all of his life. The teen inherited her adoration for the animals but ended up suffering flu-like symptoms, including a cough and high temperatures.
Back in March, Kenny was left “breathless” and spent months with trips to the GP and eventually the hospital. He was later diagnosed with hypersensitivity pneumonitis, a rare lung disease.
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The condition in typically found in older people who have worked alongside birds or on laboratories with certain chemicals for many years. Kenny’s disease is understood to have come from living with the parrots – a parakeet, two Cockatiels and one African Grey, from the age of nine.
Mum Iveta, 50, said: “Doctors said we couldn’t have parrots. That time was very hard for us. Even going out and being next to a pigeon is dangerous.
“He can’t even have a feather pillow – he is going to be reacting. We are never going to be seeing any parrots. We had to give them away.”
Iveta always dreamed of having an aviary and breed birds, and said the birds had been a part of her son’s life. Four years ago he received his first parrot, a cockatiel named Pikachu. Kenny taught Pikachu to talk, and every day when he got home from school, he would be greeted by the bird.
“In March he came home and was breathless. We thought he didn’t have energy,” Iveta said, reports the Daily Record.
“Around May my husband and Kenny went to Isle of Skye and Kenny was more breathless and my husband said something wasn’t right. He kept getting worse so we took him to the GP at the start of the summer holiday.”
The GP assumed Kenny had asthma and prescribed him with an inhaler but the boy “kept getting worse.” Iveta added: “We took him to the hospital and the lungs were ok and the doctor said it was maybe a panic attack”
Iveta said Kenny started “breathing like a dog” and when they brought him back to hospital in August, a doctor realised he could barely breathe. She added: “We left him in the morning at 2am and they gave him a room. At 7am in the morning we came back and he was already on oxygen.
“Doctors said they didn’t know what was going on and did X-ray, CT scan, blood test. They were having conversations with a hospital in London to try and figure it out.
“I took him home for a few hours and everything was ok at home. We went back to the hospital and after three hours it started – high temperatures, breathless, coughing.
“The doctors said it is not an allergy – it was his system reacted to the birds.” This was when Kenny was diagnosed with hypersensitivity pneumonitis.
Kenny was given steroids and wasn’t able to come home until the house was completely cleaned. The family has set up a GoFundMe page to make sure Kenny has a healthy home where he can breathe freely.