This is not an itch you should scratch. An Australian child named Ava learned that the hard way when, after scratching a pesky mosquito bite, she was left hospitalized and temporarily unable to walk.
In an interview with Kidspot, Ava’s mom, Bek, recalled how her 9-year-old daughter began scratching a mosquito bite while camping with their family.
Bek initially thought nothing of it, as Ava and her brother, Connor, have been bitten by the insect “countless times.” Bek applied cream on Ava’s bite as normal, but within days it had “doubled in size, was firm and red.” It was also sore to the touch.
On the fifth day of the ordeal, Ava’s bite “tripled in size overnight.” Alarmingly, Ava was also unable to walk, leaving the family “very worried.”
After being assessed online by a nurse, Bek was advised to take Ava to the hospital.
Child’s Bite Is Much Worse Than Initially Thought
“The doctor took one look at her and he was concerned,” Bek said, “because the bite was behind the knee and on a joint, and an infection may have been in that joint.”
Ava was diagnosed with staph infection and put on an IV drip during a three-day hospitalization. That course of treatment didn’t work, though. Ava was found to have MRSA, a rare, resistant strain of the condition.
“It had spread all the way back up her thigh, and the skin was all red and hot, to the point that her lymph nodes were swollen,” Bek said.
The new antibiotics work and Ava regained her ability to walk. She was released from the hospital, but the family’s ordeal didn’t end there.
Child Sickened Again
“It was explained to me that we carry staph on our skins, however it takes someone who has it under their nails and has scratched an open sore, and once it gets into your bloodstream, it’s hard to get out,” Bek said.
As such, recurrences are common unless the bug is eradicated. Ava’s family only learned that when she once again fell ill. When Ava got more bites, Beks covered them with bandages in an effort to stop her daughter from scratching them. That was a mistake.
“Taking them off left spots of open skin, and within two days, there were eight spots that had all turned into golden staph,” Bek said.
Another trip to the doctor and a course of treatment that didn’t work followed. Eventually, though, Ava was given the correct medication.
Now, the family is in the midst of an “eradication program.” That involves cleaning their caravan, washing everything in hot water with disinfectant, and bathing in chlorhexidine surgical wash.
“She’s scared to scratch or touch any sore on her body now, and she’s worried it’s going to stay in her body forever,” Bek said of her daughter. “She’s also got scars on the back of both of her legs now.”
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