6-year-old may need to relearn how to walk, talk after tick bite leads to ICU, mom says
A bite from a tick left a 6-year-old Arkansas boy fighting for his life, his mother says, and he may not be the same when he wakes up.
In late June, Aiden Debusk went on a short hike with his family, his mother, Laiken Debusk, told KTHV. She checked her kids for ticks when they got home, found and removed a couple of them, unaware that one had infected Aiden with a tick-borne illness.
“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!” Debusk said in a Facebook post.
The Russellville mom has been documenting her son’s unexpected struggle on social media, asking for prayers and support, thoughts, positive energy, anything that might help.
“Say a protection prayer. Dance in the rain. Whisper to the earth. It doesn’t matter to me, I just want the entire world to be echoing my babies name!” Debusk said. “I’d do it for you. I promise.”
Aiden seemed fine at first, just headaches and a slight fever, signs she took for a sinus infection, she told KTHV.
“After two days of treating it with Benadryl, ibuprofen and Tylenol,” Debusk told the outlet. “That turned into complete delusion, loss of all motor skill. He was going to the bathroom on himself.”
Aiden’s family took him to an area hospital but he was soon flown to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, Debusk told KARK. Since then, he’s suffered numerous seizures — some lasting hours — and been placed in medically induced comas in order to save his life.
“He doesn’t know his name. He can barely, like he knows who me or his daddy are, but at the same time, he doesn’t know where he’s at. He’s just crying,” Debusk told the outlet. “He lost all motor skills, all function, he couldn’t speak. He was just yelling. He was just chattering. Come to find out these were all mild seizures.”
Aiden had been infected with ehrlichiosis, Debusk said on Facebook.
Ehrlichiosis is an uncommon illness most commonly transmitted through tick bites. Symptoms can range from “mild to life-threatening,” though some may not notice any symptoms at all, according to Cedars-Sinai.
The tick bite and the illness that came with it are only part of the problem. Aiden’s body had a rare and dangerous reaction called central nervous system hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, or CNS-HLH, Debusk said.
As a result, his brain and arteries swelled, Debusk told KARK. Doctors told her that the odds of Aiden suffering from CNS-HLH were 1 in 50,000.
Aiden has been responding well to treatment, but the path to recovery won’t be short or easy, Debusk said in her social media posts.
It’s possible he may need to relearn how to walk and talk, though “we won’t know until he actually wakes up,” she said.
“He may not be the same Aiden I had,” she said. “But that’s OKAY! He’s here! And THATS what matters!”
As of July 13, Aiden hasn’t woken up, Debusk told McClatchy News, but he seems to be responding to her touch and he hasn’t suffered any more seizures.
“He’s not conscious yet, but he’s well on his way,” she said. “He is making gigantic strides.”
She also has some words of advice for other parents.
“Spray those babies down with bug spray,” she said in a Facebook post. “And for everything holy, if your child gets bit by a tick and they start complaining of a headache, gets fever, or just not acting themselves TAKE THEM IN!”
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