British mom Leanne Passey has quite the story to tell.
Leanne's 4-year-old daughter recently came down with chickenpox and strep A. A few of her symptoms included a fever and exhaustion, which Leanne didn't worry too much about at first — until she noticed a red ring around one of her daughter's sores.
Leanne took her daughter to the emergency room, which was understaffed and busy. She waited as the ring grew, her anxiety growing right along with it. When she and her daughter were seen, Leanne was told to give her daughter an antibiotic and to go home.
She says, "By this point the red ring had almost tripled in size. They were adamant they were too busy, she was too contagious and I needed to take her home. I said the only way I was leaving was if they kicked me out — she was deteriorating by the second."
Leanne and her daughter eventually went to another hospital, where they waited six more hours. Leanne said her daughter's temperature was 107 degrees and that "she'd gone past the point of screaming and was lying there, almost lifeless."
She continued, "I picked her up and carried her through the doors and said, 'Someone needs to see my daughter; I feel like she's dying.'"
Her daughter was soon rushed into surgery, which took four hours. Doctors ultimately concluded that she had necrotizing fasciitis, or flesh-eating bacteria.
Ultimately, the 4-year-old seems to have contracted the disease as a result of her strep A infection. Though doctors removed the bacteria via surgery, the little girl didn't improve at first and was put into a coma. Leanne says, "Her face and body were swollen — she didn't look right at all."
She continued, "We walked her to [the operating room], and the surgeon explained it had spread and she was in septicemia — we didn't know if she was going to survive."
After three weeks, the 4-year-old pulled through.
Leanne is sharing the story to help other families. As she put it, "It's horrendous. You never expect it to happen to you until it does. I just want people to understand that it's so serious. It wasn't the chickenpox; it was the strep that got through the wound."
