5-year-old unable to move, breathe, after contracting ‘tick paralysis’
A five-year-old girl was hospitalized and put on a ventilator after contracting what is known as “tick paralysis.”
TODAY reports earlier this month, Averey Mell from Ohio began having trouble keeping her balance, moving, swallowing, and breathing. She was rushed to the hospital.
According to TODAY, her mother Sami Mell posted about the incident on Facebook where she wrote, ” We got to ICU I noticed a lump in her hair. It was a tick. I searched her and found another at the back of her head in the neckline.”
Mell said the ticks were almost the size of a quarter and once they were removed, Averey quickly improved. Averey has recovered and is back at home, TODAY reports.
TODAY reports that tick paralysis is potentially deadly, and it’s caused by a neurotoxin found in the salivary glands of several species of ticks, including Rocky Mountain wood tick, American dog tick, the Lone Star tick, the Gulf Coast tick and the deer tick.
The only treatment is to remove the tick.
Reports state tick paralysis is not an infection, so there are no drugs to treat it. When the tick is removed, the neurotoxin is flushed out of the body.
