A MOTHER is warning parents to be vigilant after her six-year-old son was left brain damaged after being bitten by a tick carrying Lyme disease.
Doctors told the family for months he had a viral infection until tests eventually confirmed the youngster had Lyme disease.
Amy Mitchell’s son Adam contracted meningitis along with brain and central nervous system damage suffering full facial paralysis left unable to blink or swallow after the tiny bite.
He has been left with additional support needs as he struggles to process information and has coordination and incontinence problems.
The pupil at Auldearn Primary School in Nairn did not suffer any of the symptoms normally associated with a tick bite and no-one knows when it happened.
“This year has been pretty rotten and heartbreaking,” said Mrs Mitchell.
“We could’ve lost Adam, and that’s the frightening thing. We want to tell his story even if just to warn other mums to keep going back to the doctor if they feel something isn’t right.”
The family’s nightmare started in April when Adam became a shadow of his former self.
“He was just really lacklustre,” said Mrs Mitchell.
“He was getting off the school bus with his shoulders slumped and then coming straight home and lying on the sofa under a blanket every night.
“His wee brother was trying to play with him but there was nothing in him.”
Eventually the true cause was discovered and Adam was treated.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here