6-year-old Arkansas boy fighting for life after tick bite
A short walk in the woods last month turned into a catastrophe for an Arkansas family.
Six-year-old Aiden Debusk got bitten by a tick during that hike.
“It was on maybe an hour! If that! Just long enough for them to walk around in the woods and come back, me check, and pull them off!” his mother, Laiken, said in a Facebook post.
But that was enough time for the tick to transmit ehrlichiosis, which at first resulted in headaches and a slight fever. Then, according to his mother, all hell broke loose.
“He lost all motor skills, all function, he couldn’t speak,” she told a news outlet. “He was just yelling. He was just chattering. Come to find out these were all mild seizures.”
Since then, he’s suffered many seizures—some lasting for hours. Doctors have placed him in a medically induced coma in order to save his life.
In one Facebook post, his mother said, “He may need to learn how to walk/talk/eat again, we won’t know until he actually wakes up. He may not be the same Aiden I had. But that’s OKAY! He’s here! And THATS what matters! It’s going to be a long hard road but at least ITS A ROAD!”
In other comments, she warned other parents of the need to protect against ticks.
For further coverage about Aiden and tick-borne ehrlichiosis, see:
LymeDisease.org’s page on Ehrlichia and Anaplasma
TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, President of LymeDisease.org. She is co-author of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.
Dorothy Leland
Dorothy Leland is a longtime advocate and researcher focused on Lyme disease education, policy awareness, and patient support. She has contributed to numerous publications and works closely with medical professionals and organizations to improve understanding and treatment of tick-borne diseases.
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