Community comes together for Kayce
BY JAMES C. FALCON
james@nordaknorth.com
BENEDICT – A COVID-19 related hospitalization for a young girl here ultimately led to a diagnosis of something else more serious.
When Kayce Barrette was three months old, she was diagnosed with COVID-19. While she was in the hospital, a pediatrician “noticed a few things” and suggested that the young patient get genetic testing done, said Kayce’s mother, AshLynn Barrette. “We got the results about a month later, in February, that she had chromosomal duplication.” Chromosomal duplication, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute, refers to a type of mutation in which one or more copies of a DNA segment is produced. “It’s very rare,” Barrette said. “We saw a geneticist in Mayo in June. He told us more about it. It’s a random happening , arandom occurrence that isn’t genetic
or hereditary. He didn’t have that much information – it’s just that rare.” The circumstances behind what the genetic anomaly could do to Kayce remain unknown.
