Ticks are generally harmless insects, but their diseases can be fatal. They feed on the blood of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and, on rare cases, people, in order to survive.
When Stephanie entered her child’s bedroom, she saw something was wrong.
Colin, her son, is accustomed to jumping around his room, but his behavior on this specific occasion was unusual.
Collin had been playing in bed, staring up at Stephanie, so she dialed her husband Dillon’s number.
When Dillon and Stephanie carried Colin to the emergency room, they were surprised to discover that he had been paralyzed overnight. They thought his concussion was caused by collapsing before his brother’s baseball game.
Doctors thought he didn’t have a concussion because he could still speak fairly well after the collision and wasn’t experiencing any symptoms.
Collins’ condition rapidly deteriorated, necessitating more tests. Collin’s immobility crushed Dillon’s heart.
He was transported to a larger hospital when his oxygen levels began to fall due to his inability to eat or drink.
Stephanie and Dillon were fully aware that every second counted for Collin, and that he had the best equipment at his disposal.
Collin’s parents discovered after he was evacuated that if they had arrived any later, their son could have died from a heart attack.
The source of the issue was ultimately discovered to be a little tick behind Collin’s ear.
Both his parents and the doctors had overlooked it.
He quickly recovered to normal when the tick was removed.
Despite the ubiquity of tick bites, insect saliva paralysis is a rare illness.
According to the medical expert, the tick’s salivary glands contain a neurotoxic toxin. This suggests that the neurotoxic entered Collin’s system while the tick was eating, causing paralysis.
Collin’s condition should make parents more concerned about their children’s health.
