At one year old, little Ryan Lines, from Australia, had to have his fingers and both feet amputated due to septic shock.
One December morning last year, the child’s mother, Jessica Lines, noticed that he had woken up with a runny nose, fever, weakness and a look of pain.
“That afternoon, he had a slight fever and was starting to not be himself, he was very needy and quiet,” highlighted his mother in an interview with Australia’s ABC News website. She claims she doesn’t know when and how Ryan contracted the infection.
His parents took him to a hospital in Broken Hill. According to his mother, doctors said he had a generalized infection caused by group A Streptococcus bacteria, known as Strep A.
The baby was then transferred by plane to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in the city of Adelaide. However, sepsis quickly progresses to septic shock, a situation in which there is a risk of death.
Tissue rot
Over the next four months, the family’s journey was marked by painful surgeries and amputations, as the child’s blood circulation was not allowing efficient oxygenation of the tissues in his hands and legs.
To control the condition, the solution was to amputate the limbs that had rotted.
