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Every Parent Needs to See What "Tick Paralysis" Did to This Girl

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After a particularly scary morning that left one little girl in the hospital and diagnosed with a potentially fatal condition, one mom is sharing her story in the hopes that other parents will learn the damage ticks can cause - aside from Lyme disease.

When Evelyn first started acting "a little weird" before getting ready for bed, Amanda Lewis wasn't too concerned. Evelyn didn't want to stand up after her bath so her mom helped her into her pajamas. When the child was stilly more fussy than usual, Amanda ended up sleeping in bed with her.

But by morning, Evelyn had a hard time standing at all and her mom knew that something was seriously wrong. "She could barely walk, or crawl, and could hardly use her arms. We took some video this morning to send to family to see if they had any idea what could be going on," she wrote in a Facebook post captioning the clip. "We decided to take her into the ER right after we took this video because her symptoms were getting worse, and given Lantz's history with cancer we were quite concerned."

A doctor quickly saw the family and after they described her symptoms, he had a strong hunch of what it could be: a tick. "[He] said over the past 15 years, he had seen about seven or eight children her age with identical symptoms," she wrote. "They looked her over, combed through her hair really well, and sure enough found a tick hiding in her hair."

Evelyn was diagnosed with tick paralysis and according to the CDC, a toxin in tick saliva is thought to be the cause of this condition. The symptoms are typically acute and confused with other neurological disorders before being properly diagnosed. "I'm glad we took her in when we did and that it wasn't something worse and that we found it before it got worse," Amanda wrote. "I feel awful for not having seen the little bugger sooner but I never would have even thought to look for a tick. It's crazy that a little bug can do this!"

If caught quickly, symptoms can reside within 24 hours of the bug being removed from a patient's skin. As Evelyn recovers, her mom wants others to know that not only can this be potentially fatal for children, but it can also affect dogs. "The ticks are out like crazy right now in this area so if your children or dogs start acting a little off, check them thoroughly for ticks! My husband and I are still in shock that this happened to our baby girl and I'm glad we were able to spread some awareness about this," she wrote. "It's not terribly common for this to happen but it's good to be aware that if your children or pets start having weakness in their limbs to look for a tick! The doctor told us that the type of tick that was found on her does not typically carry Lyme disease (dog tick) but we are keeping a close eye on her anyway."



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