Mother shares warning signs of Streptococcus A after 6-year-old daughter becomes infected and unable to walk

A mother shared the warning signs of Strep A after her daughter became a victim of an infection and was hospitalized and unable to walk.

Kadie Dolphin, 37, first noticed symptoms of the infection on November 8th. Just hours later, she was admitted to the hospital when she was 6 years old, Nancie Rae. She was so swollen that she could not walk.

Now she has made a full recovery, but the mother of five is sharing her harrowing experience to help other parents recognize their child’s symptoms.

“Doctors said that early detection was the reason she got better so quickly,” Ms. Dolphin said. By the time it started going really bad, we didn’t know what it was.It took us forever to find out what was wrong.

“Doctors said the swelling was right in front of her. [Nancie Rae] It was swollen right in front of us, so the doctor said we were really worried.

“The worrying thing was that I didn’t know what was going on,” she continued. “I was watching her thinking, ‘Are you going to leave without her daughter?'”

Dolphin, a medical assistant in Warrington, Cheshire, first noticed Nancy Ray’s behavior on the night of November 7th.

Her daughter came downstairs at 6pm complaining of an itchy stomach. When Iruka looked, she noticed small marks on her stomach and on her knees that looked like mosquito bites.

She gave her daughter an antihistamine and thought nothing more until Nancy Ray came downstairs at 6am the next morning with a high fever and a rash where the “bite” had been.

“My daughter graduated from school on November 7th strong and healthy. She’s just so lively and crazy,” said Dolphin.

“Around 6pm, she came downstairs and said, ‘My stomach is itchy.’ It looked like she had been bitten.

“I thought I had a reaction to a mosquito bite because I was out playing.

“I gave her an antihistamine, but the next morning the rash was all over her belly – it was a strange flat rash and she was very hot to the touch.”

Dolphin tried to book a GP appointment, but was told nothing could be done until 6pm that day.

Deciding not to wait, Dolphin took her daughter to the Halton Emergency Medical Center and within five minutes of her arrival had the pair in a room and seen a doctor.

They initially believed it was an allergic reaction, but Nancy Ray’s hands, face, and lymph nodes continued to swell, so they decided to transfer her to Warrington Hospital.

Upon arrival, she was given amoxicillin antibiotics and a blood sample, and a throat swab was taken for testing. At that point, she was diagnosed with a Strep A infection.

Dolphin says:

“She was swollen right in front of us.

“We went to Warrington Hospital and they started giving her amoxicillin. They had to take 11 vials of blood from her.

“She lost the ability to walk, all her joints were swollen, completely red, and she still had a high fever. That’s when they took a Strep A throat swab.

“All night the medicine didn’t work and they kept saying she wasn’t getting better. She was a little awake.

“Amoxicillin is useless for Strep A, so I switched from steroids to penicillin.”

She was given penicillin by IV, but the high concentration of the antibiotic left her with a burning sensation in her arm.

Nancy Ray could neither walk nor speak, and Kady said she was “screaming” in pain.

Doctors continued to monitor her condition as Kady and her daughter were hospitalized for two days.

Thankfully, after 48 hours, Nancy Ray’s condition began to improve, the swelling lessened, and she was sent home on antibiotics.

She was left with some lasting effects, including kidney damage and a secondary infection, but recovered at home and Kady said she was back to her “normal, crazy mental self.”

Dolphin says:

“At 6 years old anyway, she’s so tiny and this infection has eaten away at her body, but she’s back to her normal crazy mental self.

“She’s wild and doesn’t give us a moment’s rest. Once we open her eyes, she won’t shut up.

“All we hear is that the children died, but that’s not all. She came home and is fine. .”

According to the NHS website, the main symptoms for parents and caregivers to look out for are: