Spokane7
58°
June 10, 2011 in City
Don’t take another bite
Mia Bradford, 6, is on the road to recovery in the arms of her mother, Courtney, after tick bites gave her Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
(Full-size photo)
Mia Bradford didn’t know anything was wrong. And then her mom screamed.
As the 6-year-old kindergartener bounded out of Summit School in Spokane Valley on May 17 and ran to her waiting parents Courtney and Jared Bradford, she had a big bloody spot on her neck.
Mia’s hair had been put into French braids and then spun into two buns a la “Star Wars” heroine Princess Leia.
Her parents quickly dabbed the blood and noticed the head of a tick embedded in her hairline.
Her dad grabbed his medical kit and used tweezers to pluck it out. When they got home Mia received a thorough tick check and took a soapy bath.
What happened over the next two weeks was “just plain scary,” Courtney Bradford said.
Hours later a second engorged tick burst at her hairline – leaving another bloody spot the size of a quarter on her neck. The two bite sites swelled up.
“At this point we’re just creeped out,” Courtney Bradford said.
“Poor Mia was like a Granny’s buffet,” cracked her dad.
Jokes aside, Mia contracted Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a tick-borne disease that if left undiagnosed and untreated can be serious, even fatal. It’s rare that people get sick from tick bites. State health officials say there between zero and three cases of the disease in Washington state each year.
Mia hasn’t been back to school since and misses her friends and teacher. Instead she has made multiple trips to the doctor, spent a day in the pediatric emergency room at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, and been advised to keep out of the sun and limit play dates as she takes doses of a rugged antibiotic that has temporarily weakened her immune system.
Her parents wanted to share Mia’s story as a means to encourage parents to watch their children after a tick bite. In the days following the bite, Mia didn’t feel well and cried often.
Normally full of spunk, she lapsed into episodes where she would seem to “space out,” they said.
Then on Day 10 she spiked a fever of 103.7 degrees, and her ears turned raspberry red. Her joints ached and she had stomach cramps.
Tylenol didn’t work and then she broke out into rash that spread from her arm to her hands, ankles and feet. She couldn’t eat and lost four pounds – 10 percent of her body weight.
Her doctor suspected Rocky Mountain spotted fever and instructed her parents to get to the ER at Sacred Heart.
That’s where they met Dr. Jesse Atwood.
He listened as they recounted the bite and symptoms, and moved quickly to put Mia on doxycycline, a powerful medication with some negative side effects – but a better alternative than leaving the fever unchecked.
Atwood said initial blood tests have tested positive for the rare disease. He also urged parents to pay attention to their children’s symptoms after tick bites.
Insect bites are nothing new to Atwood and emergency rooms. Usually patients come in with bites from hobo spiders or have allergic reactions to bites from mosquitoes and other pests.
The Spokane Regional Health District has encouraged residents this spring to wear light-colored clothing with sleeves and to undergo tick checks after venturing outside.
Mia just hopes the episode won’t derail her summer. Once she completely heals she plans to spend plenty of time at the swimming pool and playing with friends.
For now, she is pretending to camp by playing in a tent set up in the basement of her home – where there are no ticks.
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ChefGus/ John Olsen on June 10 at 6:40 a.m.
The ticks at Holden Village up in the Glacier Peak wilderness area are ubiquitous and all of them are very hungry …. Take this health issue very seriously and do a “tick check” any time you have been in the woods. My daughter got Lyme fever from a bug bite when living in Northamptom MA and going to school, and her life was upside down for over a year… John
hmschlpatriot on June 10 at 7:38 a.m.
You don’t need to be out in the woods to be bitten by a tick. They also hang out in fields in tall grass and in backyards where the deer munch on your landscaping. Tick-borne diseases such as Lyme aren’t as rare as this article indicates. It’s just that the medical community refuses to admit that tick-borne diseases exist here. The doctor over in Seattle whose busy practice treats only tick-borne diseases would disagree and so do I and the seven other local people I know who have Lyme.
Providing_Buttonholes on June 10 at 8:52 a.m.
Anyone knows your NOT supposed to pluck a tick out with tweezers since it just gets the head and not the body which continues to suck the bloos and creates further infection.
MrNatural on June 10 at 10:24 a.m.
FYI y’all
http://www.srhd.org/services/livingenv.asp
Thoreau on June 10 at 12:42 p.m.
DEET repels them. A recent article in this paper dissuaded people from DEET, due to its chemical nature. However, would you rather go through what these people did, or take your chances with DEET? I’ve used DEET all my life, and have never been bitten by ticks…knock on wood. (Tick-free wood, that is.)