No one goes through childhood without getting a few scratches and bruises. However, one UK family learned the hard way that even the smallest cuts need to be taken seriously after a small scratch turned deadly.
Three-year-old Abbi Holland had been playing on the playground at school when she accidentally tripped and scraped her knee. The school’s staff gave her a wet paper towel to clean out the cut, however, just a few hours later, she rapidly developed a 109-degree fever and her parents, Caz and Dave Holland, rushed her straight to the hospital.
The small scratch became infected because it wasn’t properly cleaned or covered, and once at the hospital, her doctors tried giving her antibiotics to kill the infection but they caused severe reactions. Abbi ended up staying in the hospital for four months battling the infection, which ended up damaging her heart. In order for Abbi to survive, doctors told her terrified parents that they had to perform open heart surgery to treat the aortic valve leak.
“To be told that they are going to have to stop your little girl’s heart and there’s no guarantee they will be able to start it again is terrifying. Then to hear that if they did manage to there was a chance she could be brain damaged— well you wouldn’t wish that on your worst enemy,” David said.
Thankfully the surgery was successful, but the now seven-year-old will need more surgery in the future and has to take medication for the rest of her life. Now, the Holland family is spreading their story to show how important basic first aid is.
“We are not trying to bad mouth or blacklist anyone, we just want to promote basic first aid and get the message out about how important it is. You just don’t think this could happen as a result of a fall in a playground. It’s an eye opener, that something so small and simple could be life changing. Such a simple thing caused this and we wouldn’t want to see anyone go through what Abbi has been through.”
Did you know how dangerous a small scratch could be? Let us know what you think in the comments below and please SHARE this with friend son Facebook.
[Featured image: Manchester Evening News]
Little Girl Almost Loses Her Life After Scraping Her Knee is an article from: LifeDaily