Girl, 12, Contracts Flesh-Eating Infection During Family Vacation
MOORESVILLE, Ind. (CBS Local) -- A day at the beach turned into weeks of pain and agony for an Indiana girl after she contracted a flesh-eating disease during a trip to Florida.
Kylei Brown, 12, and her family traveled to Destin, Florida, a few weeks ago "to have a blast and enjoy the warm weather and the beach," as her mother, Michelle said. But the fun quickly turned for the worst.
Kylei, who had a cut on her toe from a skateboarding accident before the trip, began to feel pressure in her leg after a dip in the ocean.
"Monday, we wake up to begin our day and Kylei wakes up and she has pain in her calf on her right leg," Brown told CBS affiliate WKRG.
The next day, Kylei's pain reached an unusual high.
"At that point, I had to put her on my back and carry her around."
As they made their way back to their home in the Indianapolis suburb of Mooresville, Brown called her doctor for an immediate appointment.
"They notice she's in extreme pain, but they can't really determine what it is that's going on," she said.
The doctor asked Brown to take Kylei to the ER. Meantime, Kylei's condition had intensified.
"As they were doing the MRI, on her calf, they started to notice the infection had started spreading and running pretty rapidly through her body," said Brown.
Doctors noticed a pocket of infection was behind Kylei's knee, making her condition critical. Kylei was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, a very rare flesh-eating disease.
"They were taking into emergency surgery trying to remove the infection from her leg. And doing that, they were trying to save her leg and save her because the infection was moving so rapidly," said Brown.
Kylei is home now, but she still cannot walk. Doctors say after several surgeries and months of therapy, she should be back to normal.
