Posted on 04/13/2002 8:08:34 PM PDT by TMD
This is a prayer request for a dear friend's 8 year old daughter. Sunday she started developing a minor rash which was treated with over the counter Benadryl at the doctor's suggestion thinking is was a slight allergic reaction. By Sunday evening she had developed a severe rash and a very high fever. She spent 10 hours in the Emergency Room on Monday where they quickly diagnosed the Stevens Johnson Syndrome condition. She was moved that evening to a pediatric floor, but by morning she was having difficulty breathing and they moved her to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) where we anticipate she will be for 1-2 more weeks.
The reaction has caused her skin to have lesions which blister all over her body. Right now the only part of her that is not blistering is her hands, feet and lower legs. She is being treated like a burn victim with lots of fluids, dressings, antibiotics, etc. She has had surgery to remove all the dead skin and is wrapped in a biosynthetic dressing to hold her skin in place.
She is on a respirator and is heavily sedated now. The lesions are internal in her throat, stomach, etc. so she is not able to breathe on her own. She is on constant morphine for the pain. Her fever was over 106, but now it has come down and is actually very low. They are also very worried because she has a very low white blood cell count which means she could not fight off an infection so they have her on antibiotics. At times this week they have been worried about her heart (low blood pressure), her eyes (the disease causes blindness in 15% of the cases), her breathing (which they put her on a respirator), her temperature (which soared to 106 and then had been hovering at 103, but is now down to 94-97 - too low) and a million other things. Her condition literally has been changing hourly and is very serious. She is not out of the woods yet, but is stable.
The parents are the best people you can imagine. Brownie troop leader, Indian Princess chief, active in school and the classrooms, good friends, good neighbors etc...
They don't know what the allergic reaction is from. It could be Motrin, Benadryl, Tamiflu, exposure to mononucleosis or pneumonia. The likelihood of an 8 year old girl getting this is about 1 in 1,000,000. The doctors can't do anything except support the symptoms. They don't know if it will recur (like shingles) or not. It's scary. They are 150 miles away from home in Madera at the Children's Hospital. They were taking the kids camping for spring break.
Our prayers continue!
This morning at our church after the service, the congregation stood around the sanctuary, joined hands and sang the Lord's Prayer for Kaitlyn. It was very powerful and moving. Keep these kind and wonderful people in your prayers.
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