A boy who was only 8 years old, passed away a few days after he fell from his bike in Oregon.
Liam Flanagan was riding his bike on the streets of Pilot Rock when he took a spiteful fall. His jeans were ruptured due to the handlebar of the bike he was riding and that further made a deep cut his thigh.
Liam was immediately taken to the emergency room by his parents where he was given stitches. Despite being treated by the doctors, his pain around the wound never stopped.
The doctors did not consider Liam’s injury to be serious enough and thus did not prescribe antibiotics to him. The family had to return to the hospital a few days later as Liam’s pain did not end. Liam’s parents had noticed that his skin around the wounds had become discolored with a tint of red and purple.
This is when doctors found out that Liam’s skin was infected with a rare flesh-eating bacterium called necrotizing fasciitis.
The bacteria is quite perilous and possibly found a way to infect Liam’s open wound through the soil. These bacteria are known to multiply quickly and harm the body’s tissue with little chance of recovery. Time is a key factor here.
Liam was immediately treated, and the doctors did the best they could to prevent the bacteria from spreading. The little guy was airlifted to a different child hospital in Portland. The bacteria had increased its reach quite immensely, and the doctors had no choice but to amputate his limbs and few parts of his body.
This was done with the hop of saving other parts of Liam’s body and in turn, save Liam’s life. But on the contrary, it was too late as the infection had spread too far.
Liam passed away while the doctors were trying to cut out the infection. The news broke his parent’s heart completely. They just hope that others be wary of the abnormal body wounds that children might get infected with. Some symptoms associated with it are vomiting, fatigue, fever and sudden chills.
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