Little Girl Can’t WALK, Doctors Found The Shocking Reason in Her Hair
The paramount concern of a mother is the well-being of her children. From the moment they come into this world, she assumes the roles of their protector and guide, overseeing their every move and shielding them from harm. Nevertheless, the world is replete with imperceptible perils that no mother, no matter how vigilant, can avert—perils so diminutive they could rest in the palm of your hand, yet possessing the potential to inflict significant suffering and even mortality upon us.
Jessica Griffin was a humble, hardworking mother who lived with her only daughter, Kaylyn, in a quiet neighborhood on the west side of Jackson, the state capital of Mississippi. Griffin had been raising her daughter alone for five years, since the day her husband, Fred, was involved in a tragic motorcycle accident in which he lost his life. Her daughter, Kaylyn, was only a few months old when her father passed away, so she was never aware of what happened until a few years later. Seeing a picture of her parents in the living room, she asked her mother who the man next to her was.
“That’s your daddy, honey. His name was Fred, and I know you would have loved him as much as I loved him. You look so much like him, you don’t know how much. When you grow up, you’ll understand better,” explained her mother, trying to hold back tears as she remembered her husband again.
It was really hard for Jessica to have raised her daughter without Fred’s help, especially after losing him in such a tragic and unexpected way, but she managed it. Moreover, during all this time, she was never alone, as both she and her little girl had the unconditional support of her parents and friends at all times. After becoming a widow, Jessica decided to take a leave of absence from her job as a children’s book editor because she wanted to devote herself entirely to raising her baby and be more present during her early years. She was truly passionate about her work as an editor, and after almost four years of leave, during which she was able to be a mother and grieve for her husband in peace, she made the decision to return to her position as editor-in-chief at a major national publishing house.
By then, little Kaylyn had already turned five years old and had grown into a beautiful, restless-minded, sports-loving child who couldn’t be denied anything. As her mother had told her on several occasions, Kaylyn not only resembled her father on the outside with striking blue eyes and reddish hair that were hard to forget; father and daughter also shared the same tastes and hobbies, being a baseball lover since the day her grandfather took her to see her first game when she was only two years old.
Her father loved this sport, and one of his greatest wishes was to be able to go with his children to watch the games of his favorite team every week, just as he did when he was a child. It was a beautiful tradition that, despite Fred’s untimely death, Kaylyn’s grandfather didn’t want to lose and decided to continue in memory of his late son. For Jessica, going to baseball games wasn’t easy, as it brought back too many memories of her husband and some of the best times she’d spent with him. In fact, her husband had asked her to marry him at that very stadium, so going back there without him was a painful experience. Therefore, for the first few years of her life, Kaylyn went to watch all the games accompanied just by her grandpa, thus forging her own tradition and enjoying the sport they both loved.
However, when Kaylyn was older and began to be more aware of what happened, she tried to encourage her mother to join them and enjoy the sport her father loved so much.
“Mommy, you can’t stay home all the time. Daddy would want you to come and enjoy the game together with me and Grandpa, I’m sure. Come with us tomorrow, please! I’m sure you’ll have a great time. Besides, the fries are delicious, and I know you love them,” Kaylyn begged her mother, seeing that again her mother refused to join them and had planned to stay home all afternoon watching TV.
“The fries I make are excellent too, honey,” her mother replied in an amused tone, trying to reject her daughter’s invitation and divert the subject.
She didn’t succeed, though. Kaylyn continued to insist throughout the rest of the day, and finally, after a little negotiation in which the seven-year-old girl promised not to ask her again for a long time, Jessica agreed to go to the game the next day. It would be the third time she would go to the stadium since her husband died, and although she didn’t feel ready for it, Mrs. Griffin decided to follow the advice of her friends and try to move on with her life, as her husband would want her to do.
“You’ll have a great time, Mommy, you won’t regret it,” Kaylyn said excitedly when her mother finally agreed to go to the game with them.
And she really didn’t regret it, because by going to the game with her daughter, Jessica not only remembered how happy she was with her husband, but she was also able to discover how wonderful it could be to recreate moments together and enjoy such a beautiful tradition that had always kept the family together. What no one could foresee was what would happen the morning after the game—a terrible event that no one could prevent, and it would result in little Kaylyn’s immediate admission to the hospital.
It all happened the morning after the game. Jessica was preparing breakfast in the kitchen and waiting for her daughter to come downstairs to join her and get her backpack ready for school. However, as soon as Kaylyn Griffin hit the floor Monday morning, she collapsed. The seven-year-old didn’t understand what was happening; she tried to get up but fell down every time. Seeing that it was impossible to get up, she called her alarmed mother for help, who quickly called an ambulance.
“Mom, help me! I can’t get up! I can’t feel my legs! I don’t know, it’s strange,” exclaimed the little girl in tears as she crawled on the floor.
Jessica was horrified to see the condition of her little girl, and as she helped her up, she also noticed she was having trouble speaking and babbling. She couldn’t understand anything and rushed to call the emergency room to take her to the hospital as soon as possible. And it was precisely while they were in the ambulance on the way to the hospital that Griffin sighted a tick the size of a pea embedded in the girl’s scalp. As she got closer to get a better look, she noticed the insect’s body was swollen with the girl’s blood and feared the worst.
Jessica alerted the doctors accompanying them of her discovery, and they rushed to remove the tick from the girl’s scalp. They kept the bug in a bag for later analysis, but the doctors had already warned her it was most likely a rare disease called tick paralysis. The hours after Kaylyn’s admission took forever, and Jessica and the rest of the family spent more than six hours waiting in the halls of the hospital to find out exactly the extent of the injury that the tick had caused the girl—a wait that finally healed when the results revealed that Kaylyn was indeed suffering from advanced tick paralysis, but that her life was not in any danger. The doctors explained this type of paralysis is difficult to reverse and the recovery would be slow, so she should be patient and have faith the girl would respond well to treatment.
“How is it possible my daughter was the victim of a tick, doctor? Aren’t those kinds of bugs only supposed to stick to animals? I had no idea they could also bite humans. And why hasn’t it bitten me or her grandpa? It only affects her,” Jessica was very nervous and kept asking the doctors questions about what had happened to her daughter.
“This type of accident is more common than it seems. The problem is that the population is hardly informed about it. Every year we treat between 50 and 100 cases of tick bites, most of them occurring in children of your daughter’s age or younger,” Dr. Morris explained to Mrs. Griffin slowly so she could understand everything he was saying and not make her more nervous.
“And how do they transmit the disease to the child without realizing it? Is my daughter going to stay like this forever?” Jessica asked again, anxious to clarify her ideas.
“Tick paralysis is caused by female ticks about to lay eggs. When the tick feeds on blood and swells, it secretes a neurotoxin into the host. Symptoms may appear 5 to 7 days after the tick begins feeding, but sometimes it’s faster. Paralysis begins in the legs and then spreads to the upper extremities. It can also manifest as fatigue, numbness, and an increasing inability to move. In the later stages, the victim finds it harder to move the face or tongue, and if nothing is done, the toxin eventually makes breathing impossible, leading to severe respiratory failure. But don’t worry, this is not the case with your daughter. She responds well to treatment and has been treated in time,” the doctor explained calmly.
“And have you seen more cases like my daughter’s lately? Do you think we should avoid going to places with vegetation or animals outdoors to avoid this? I’ll do whatever it takes to make this known so it doesn’t happen again,” Griffin insisted again. She was determined to find out the cause of her daughter’s accident and wanted to make her case known to prevent another family from suffering a tragedy like that.
“The truth is that preventing it is not easy. We can all suffer the attack of a tick without realizing it. You shouldn’t obsess about it; what happened to your daughter is not her fault. Kaylyn’s paralysis is more common in animals, which are unable to check themselves for ticks, but human children are also susceptible due to their smaller body mass, with girls being the most affected because they can easily hide among the long hair,” the doctor began to get impatient with Mrs. Griffin’s insistence to know more about what happened to her daughter, but he never lost his calm and managed to give her a logical and detailed explanation of everything so she could understand and feel more at ease.
After her talk with the doctor and learning that her daughter was out of danger despite having to stay in the hospital for at least a couple of weeks, Jessica decided to take action and start a social media campaign to inform the public about the dangers of tick bites.
“After tons of blood work and a CT scan of the head, UMMC has ruled that it is tick paralysis. Please, for the love of God, check your children for ticks! It’s more common in children than adults,” Griffin wrote in a Facebook post that seemed a mixture of concern and relief.
Griffin didn’t stop sharing content about the girl’s recovery process and about the main symptoms with which she could detect the tick bite. Her mission to raise awareness did not take long to take effect, and in a matter of days, her posts were filled with likes and comments thanking her for her work and wishing a speedy recovery. But things didn’t stop there because, thanks to the chain of diffusion that Jessica had created with her post, a couple of parents managed to detect that their children had been victims of a tick bite, and the doctors were able to treat them correctly to eliminate the toxin that the insect had injected into them.
The last photo the mother posted on the network showed the girl clutching two balloons in the hospital hallway.
“Look who is walking out of the hospital! Everything’s completely back to normal,” Griffin wrote, including a raised hands emoji. “God is good.”
Little by little, a small community of support and information about the danger of these insects was created, managing to correctly inform parents and at the same time save the lives of children who seemed to have no choice. It was wonderful for Griffin to know what the small gesture had achieved, and she thanked everyone for the support shown from the beginning. Kaylyn was able to return home a week after the photo of her recovery was published, and thousands of people celebrated it with the family through social networks—a happy ending to a terrible accident to which, unfortunately, we are all exposed.
Jessica did something that not many are able to do in the moments of suffering: worrying about others. Most of them would have worried about their own child and had forgotten about the rest, but the only thing she wanted to do was inform everyone so that no one else was in the same situation of helplessness as her. I hope we can all follow her example. Did you like this touching and surprising story? If so, we invite you to leave us a comment expressing your opinion. If you want to continue enjoying inspiring stories like this one, subscribe to our channel or check out the other videos shown at the bottom of the screen. Thank you for your cooperation.
