3-year-old Pennsylvania boy contracts rare illness from tick bite
After a diagnosis of meningoencephalitis and proper IVIG treatment, there would be light at the end of the tunnel in Johnny’s road to recovery. (Jamie Simoson) Fifteen minutes.
That’s all it took to transmit a rare, dangerous and debilitating tick-borne disease that seriously sickened an energetic, witty and generally healthy 3-year-old Pennsylvania boy.Jamie Simoson’s motherly intuition pushed her to seek further medical treatment for something her youngest son’s pediatrician assured her was a virus that needed to run its course.
However, it was something she later learned required weeks of medical care and came with the possibility of lifelong effects.Jonny Simoson was swimming in a neighbor’s pool on June 15 when his mom noticed a small speck on his right shoulder blade.
It was a tick smaller than a pen point."It was not embedded. It was not engorged. I easily removed it with a pair of tweezers, and it was still alive," Simoson said. "He didn't necessarily have any marks on his back shoulder until a few days later; there was just a tiny red bump.
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