This little boy was shaky after hitting his head. Then doctors made an alarming discovery. When one little boy felt weak after hitting his head, his parents rushed him to the hospital. At first, doctors believed that the toddler had a concussion, but they soon discovered that his situation was much more worrying.
Like many toddlers, little Colin was a ball of energy. So when his parents Stephanie and Dylan took him to his older brother’s baseball practice, they knew they’d have to keep him entertained. As a result, Dylan and Colin enjoyed a game of hide and seek around their family car.
Amidst the excitement, though, the youngster tripped and fell. But although Colin suffered a little cut to his eyebrow, he got right back up and started playing again. His parents, therefore, thought nothing of the incident. After all, he’d fallen numerous times before with no issue. « He’s had worse falls before, » Colin’s mom Stephanie told TV show The Doctors in 2015. « So we didn’t think nothing about it and went to bed. »
However, overnight the toddler’s condition took a terrifying turn. « Next morning I went to go wake up Colin, » Stephanie explained, recalling the distressing incident. « He couldn’t sit up. I was just thinking it was the flu, but when I realized that he couldn’t walk, I called my husband. » Dylan rushed home, picked up Colin and Stephanie, and drove them to the hospital. At the emergency room, the concerned parents explained how their little one had fallen the night before. The doctors consequently figured that Colin had a concussion. To diagnose the suspected ailment, they conducted a CAT scan. However, the test results came back clear.
Despite this good news, though, Colin’s health was still in decline, and now the experts seemed stumped as to what the problem was. When he’d first arrived in the hospital, it was only his legs that Colin couldn’t move. But as time passed, he lost the ability to sit up, and by the evening, the three-year-old was almost completely paralyzed. The only thing he could do was breathe, Dylan explained. « He could not drink his bottle. He could not eat his food. He just laid there, » Stephanie added. « Then his oxygen levels were dropping, so the next day they decided to do a spinal tap to rule out meningitis. »
Once again, though, the test came back negative, and with Colin’s condition still in free fall, his parents began to panic. Consequently, they had their son transferred to a children’s hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. It was only then that doctors discovered the shocking truth behind the toddler’s illness. Colin got to the new facility just in time. Doctors told his parents that had they arrived just 30 minutes later, his little body would have gone into cardiac arrest. Luckily, however, they were able to stabilize the child and get to the bottom of his condition. Upon examining the toddler, a team of infectious disease doctors and neurologists discovered a tick behind Colin’s ear. And it turned out that the little boy’s paralysis was all down to this tiny creature. After the tick was removed, the toddler started receiving an antibiotic, at which point he slowly began to regain movement in his feet.
Little Colin had suffered from tick paralysis. The disease is caused by a neurotoxin found in the saliva of certain ticks. This then transmits to the host when the parasite feeds, and over the course of a few days, it destroys nerve tissue, causing paralysis. In some cases, the disease can be fatal. But Colin was saved just in time. As soon as the doctors removed the tick, Colin started to improve. Before his parents knew it, he was back to his normal, boisterous self. And a relieved Stephanie and Dylan could not have been happier.
However, his dad felt things could have been much different if they hadn’t made the bold move to transfer their child. « I think that if my wife and I hadn’t have made the decision to go to another hospital, I don’t think he would have made it, » Dylan admitted. Later, he and his family appeared by video link on the medically themed talk show The Doctors, and Colin appeared to have made a miraculous recovery from his brush with tick paralysis.
On the show, Dr. Travis Stork revealed that while tick bites are common, this form of paralysis is quite rare. And he added, « It is not related to Lyme disease, a bacterial infection that can cause long-lasting symptoms, which is also spread by ticks. This neurotoxin hangs out in their salivary glands, » Dr. Travis explained to viewers. « And so while the tick is feeding, that neurotoxin gets into, in this case, Colin’s blood, and that leads to what we call an ascending paralysis. Initially starts with the legs and ability to walk. »
Stephanie and Dylan revealed that ticks were a common problem where they lived in Atoka, Tennessee. « We get ticks all the time, » Stephanie admitted. However, she no doubt never expected that such a tiny creature to have such a devastating impact on her son.
Thankfully, however, the disease shouldn’t have a lasting impact on Colin. And having been almost completely paralyzed, he now finds it hard to sit still. His parents are probably exhausted then, but we’re sure they wouldn’t have it any other way.
