Concerned mum was told that she was ‘overreacting’ but her son’s condition only got worse – “He looked like he had been bashed”
- Replies 10
The person behind the popular saying ‘mum knows best’ was surely onto something as it seems that every mum has a natural knack for knowing when something isn’t right with one of their children. You can call it coincidence or a lucky guess as much as you want, but one Aussie mum's maternal instincts were certainly dead-on when she followed a strong gut feeling that her son was on the verge of a serious health issue.
Bec was allegedly told by the doctors that she was ‘overreacting’ when she rushed her 13 month old son Archie to the hospital after a pale red rash appeared on his back.
Eight anxiety-ridden hours later in the emergency room, she was dismissed and instructed to give her son Panadol.
But the following day, Archie’s condition only worsened. His body was swollen and the pale rash had developed into raised, purple blotches that spread onto his face and limbs. Even grimmer, the poor little boy was screaming in agony.
The mum was made to believe that she was ‘overreacting’. Image Credit: 7News
“He looked like he had been bashed,” Bec recalled, adding that she raced her son back to the hospital for the second time.
“I instantly went into panic mode - I thought it was meningococcal,”
Archie was immediately surrounded by medical staff. The next day, they revealed the diagnosis.
The little boy suffered from acute haemorrhagic oedema of infancy – a rare but treatable disease that consisted of painful large raised skin lesions, swelling, and in some cases, a fever.
According to DermNet NZ, the disease “generally develops in children between the ages of 4 months and 2 years of age,”. They also added that because the disease is so rare, experts to this day are stumped about what actually causes it.
The mum of three is grateful that she went along with her gut instinct and pursued seeking medical help for her little boy.
“I just didn’t feel right about the rash,” Bec said.
“I am so thankful I trusted my mum’s intuition. If I were a first-time mum, I might have thought I was just being dramatic,”
Prior to Archie’s diagnosis, he had been suffering from respiratory congestion that lasted for over a month. Bec had taken him to the GP for three consecutive weeks and each time, she was told that her son only had a “common cold”.
“I started to think that maybe I was just being overcautious,” Bec shared.
“He had no fever, he had a little cough and a runny nose.”
On her third visit to the GP, the doctor prescribed Archie antibiotics. But a few days later, the mum of three spotted a peculiar rash starting to appear on her son’s back.
“He had these little light red spots on him like he’d brushed up against something and had a reaction,” she says.
“I wasn’t overly worried but I just thought I would keep an eye on it,”
From then on, things started taking a turn for the worse. Bec called the GP and was told that this was a common reaction that infants may experience while recovering from a virus.
But the day after, it was evident to Bec that her little boy might be suffering from something more grave than a common cold. The rash had turned into a bright, concerning shade of red and started to form defined splotches across Archie’s body.
Little Archie’s condition only worsened. Image Credit: 7News
“It was now on his face and the inside of his legs near his nappy,” Bec said, adding that the rashes looked similar to a maze of raised mosquito bites.
When Archie showed signs of extreme discomfort, Bec contacted the doctor again and she was advised to take her son to the hospital.
“I was now starting to get worried,”
Eight long hours after Bec raced little Archie to the emergency room, the doctors diagnosed him with roseola infantum, which is a common viral rash. The mum was merely given a topical cream to help relieve the symptoms.
She was told that a nurse would drop by their home for a follow-up evaluation the day after, reassuring the mum that everything would be okay.
But Bec spent the rest of the night trying to soothe her boy.
“It was clearly irritating him, he was more whiney than normal,” she detailed. “He barely slept, his body was so swollen,”
“It looked like he had been punched – there were what seemed to look like purple bruises over his whole body. It was all over his stomach and face and he was screaming in agony,”
The little boy’s ankles were so swollen that he struggled to hold his own weight, leaving him in debilitating pain.
“He would scream if we picked him up but then scream again if we sat him down,” Bec says.
“I didn’t know what to do,”
At this point, Bec and her husband Dean speculated on whether or not their son had meningococcal – a deadly bacterial infection.
When the nurse dropped by their place for the promised follow-up visit, she only ended up fuelling the mum’s worst fears.
“The nurse looked at him and said, ‘I am not touching him, I think he has meningococcal’,” Bec recalled.
“I just burst into tears,”
Archie was rushed to the hospital where he was admitted immediately. The doctors conducted a variety of tests and documented Archie’s symptoms.
“IV fluids, tests, creams, they tried everything,” Bec said. “So many doctors came, including trainees, and just kept saying they hadn’t seen anything like this,”
“I thought he was going to die,”
As Bec and her husband anxiously waited for the test results, the medical experts' attention shifted to the couple, interrogating them both about possible actions they may have committed toward their son.
“They started asking us if we had ever done anything to him,” Bec said. “It was horrible... We were just trying our best to help our child who was obviously in so much pain,”
“I understand that they had to ask us because that is exactly what it looked like,”
Bec detailed that Archie’s skin made him look like he was beaten up as the rash developed into a deep purple colour.
Eventually, the tests conducted found that Archie suffered from the rare skin disease. But in Archie’s case, the doctors theorised that the antibiotics he was prescribed for his cold may have triggered the illness.
Archie recovered from the disease. Image Credit: 7News
After two gruelling days of administering a prescribed cream, Archie was finally discharged - and the rash vanished completely within four days.
The toddler is now his usual, bubbly self.
However, the mum was warned that it’s likely Archie may contract the illness again – but it should disappear entirely as he ages.
“You wouldn’t know any of this happened to him by looking at him now,” Bec said.
Bec is now urging other parents to keep seeking medical advice if a condition seems to be worsening despite Doctors’ assurances otherwise and if they are genuinely concerned.
What are your thoughts on little Archie’s story? Share them with us in the comments!
Bec was allegedly told by the doctors that she was ‘overreacting’ when she rushed her 13 month old son Archie to the hospital after a pale red rash appeared on his back.
Eight anxiety-ridden hours later in the emergency room, she was dismissed and instructed to give her son Panadol.
But the following day, Archie’s condition only worsened. His body was swollen and the pale rash had developed into raised, purple blotches that spread onto his face and limbs. Even grimmer, the poor little boy was screaming in agony.
The mum was made to believe that she was ‘overreacting’. Image Credit: 7News
“He looked like he had been bashed,” Bec recalled, adding that she raced her son back to the hospital for the second time.
“I instantly went into panic mode - I thought it was meningococcal,”
Archie was immediately surrounded by medical staff. The next day, they revealed the diagnosis.
The little boy suffered from acute haemorrhagic oedema of infancy – a rare but treatable disease that consisted of painful large raised skin lesions, swelling, and in some cases, a fever.
According to DermNet NZ, the disease “generally develops in children between the ages of 4 months and 2 years of age,”. They also added that because the disease is so rare, experts to this day are stumped about what actually causes it.
The mum of three is grateful that she went along with her gut instinct and pursued seeking medical help for her little boy.
“I just didn’t feel right about the rash,” Bec said.
“I am so thankful I trusted my mum’s intuition. If I were a first-time mum, I might have thought I was just being dramatic,”
Prior to Archie’s diagnosis, he had been suffering from respiratory congestion that lasted for over a month. Bec had taken him to the GP for three consecutive weeks and each time, she was told that her son only had a “common cold”.
“I started to think that maybe I was just being overcautious,” Bec shared.
“He had no fever, he had a little cough and a runny nose.”
On her third visit to the GP, the doctor prescribed Archie antibiotics. But a few days later, the mum of three spotted a peculiar rash starting to appear on her son’s back.
“He had these little light red spots on him like he’d brushed up against something and had a reaction,” she says.
“I wasn’t overly worried but I just thought I would keep an eye on it,”
From then on, things started taking a turn for the worse. Bec called the GP and was told that this was a common reaction that infants may experience while recovering from a virus.
But the day after, it was evident to Bec that her little boy might be suffering from something more grave than a common cold. The rash had turned into a bright, concerning shade of red and started to form defined splotches across Archie’s body.
Little Archie’s condition only worsened. Image Credit: 7News
“It was now on his face and the inside of his legs near his nappy,” Bec said, adding that the rashes looked similar to a maze of raised mosquito bites.
When Archie showed signs of extreme discomfort, Bec contacted the doctor again and she was advised to take her son to the hospital.
“I was now starting to get worried,”
Eight long hours after Bec raced little Archie to the emergency room, the doctors diagnosed him with roseola infantum, which is a common viral rash. The mum was merely given a topical cream to help relieve the symptoms.
She was told that a nurse would drop by their home for a follow-up evaluation the day after, reassuring the mum that everything would be okay.
But Bec spent the rest of the night trying to soothe her boy.
“It was clearly irritating him, he was more whiney than normal,” she detailed. “He barely slept, his body was so swollen,”
“It looked like he had been punched – there were what seemed to look like purple bruises over his whole body. It was all over his stomach and face and he was screaming in agony,”
The little boy’s ankles were so swollen that he struggled to hold his own weight, leaving him in debilitating pain.
“He would scream if we picked him up but then scream again if we sat him down,” Bec says.
“I didn’t know what to do,”
At this point, Bec and her husband Dean speculated on whether or not their son had meningococcal – a deadly bacterial infection.
When the nurse dropped by their place for the promised follow-up visit, she only ended up fuelling the mum’s worst fears.
“The nurse looked at him and said, ‘I am not touching him, I think he has meningococcal’,” Bec recalled.
“I just burst into tears,”
Archie was rushed to the hospital where he was admitted immediately. The doctors conducted a variety of tests and documented Archie’s symptoms.
“IV fluids, tests, creams, they tried everything,” Bec said. “So many doctors came, including trainees, and just kept saying they hadn’t seen anything like this,”
“I thought he was going to die,”
As Bec and her husband anxiously waited for the test results, the medical experts' attention shifted to the couple, interrogating them both about possible actions they may have committed toward their son.
“They started asking us if we had ever done anything to him,” Bec said. “It was horrible... We were just trying our best to help our child who was obviously in so much pain,”
“I understand that they had to ask us because that is exactly what it looked like,”
Bec detailed that Archie’s skin made him look like he was beaten up as the rash developed into a deep purple colour.
Eventually, the tests conducted found that Archie suffered from the rare skin disease. But in Archie’s case, the doctors theorised that the antibiotics he was prescribed for his cold may have triggered the illness.
Archie recovered from the disease. Image Credit: 7News
After two gruelling days of administering a prescribed cream, Archie was finally discharged - and the rash vanished completely within four days.
The toddler is now his usual, bubbly self.
However, the mum was warned that it’s likely Archie may contract the illness again – but it should disappear entirely as he ages.
“You wouldn’t know any of this happened to him by looking at him now,” Bec said.
Bec is now urging other parents to keep seeking medical advice if a condition seems to be worsening despite Doctors’ assurances otherwise and if they are genuinely concerned.
What are your thoughts on little Archie’s story? Share them with us in the comments!
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