Western Daily Press - UK
Mother-of-five Tracey Thorpe yesterday told how her six-year-old son contracted a mysterious, debilitating and potentially deadly disease while playing near his rural Wiltshire home. The symptoms left medics stumped and only a chance remark by a hospital consultant led to William, whose face was paralysed and who was suffering searing headaches, being successfully treated.
He had become a victim of Lyme Disease, which is spread by ticks that feed on infected sheep or deer, and can cause serious heart and nervous system conditions if untreated.
Following William's full recovery after an intense bombardment of drugs, a relieved Mrs Thorpe, 44, yesterday spoke about her family's anguish in order to warn other parents about the condition.
She said: "Living in a wood we'd heard of Lyme Disease, but the symptoms we had always been warned to watch for were flu-like.
"William's condition was nothing like the flu. He was getting worse and worse, his face was terrible, and no one knew what was wrong with him. I dread to think what might have happened." The family live in a wood next to the remains of Fonthill Abbey, near the village of Hindon in south Wiltshire, where Mrs Thorpe's husband John is the gamekeeper.
During mid-July William, who has four older sisters, developed a swollen neck under his right ear and the local GP diagnosed mumps, even though he had received his MMR jab.
But a few days later Mrs Thorpe realised something strange was happening to the right side of her son's face. "I was the only one who noticed at first. It looked like palsy, like he had a stroke. It was becoming paralysed." Around the same time William began suffering excruciating headaches and then developed a rash, prompting his parents to fear he had contracted meningitis.
Another doctor who examined him consulted her medical books, but was unable to find an answer and referred William to paediatricians at Salisbury District Hospital. Mrs Thorpe said: "By this time his face was completely paralysed down the right side." One of the doctors who examined William was unable to say what was wrong and spoke to the consultant in charge.
When the doctor came back he asked, almost as a long shot: "You don't happen to live in a forest do you?" When Mrs Thorpe said "yes" they said it might be Lyme Disease. She said: "I remember pulling a tick from the back of William's head about three weeks earlier.
"It left a small red mark. I'd forgotten all about it. But none of his symptoms matched what I'd heard about Lyme Disease." For the next week the youngster had to take eight steroids a day, five "horrible tasting" anti-viral tablets, antibiotics and eye drops, as his eyes were in danger of being affected.
His mother said: "If it wasn't for that chance remark about living in a forest then I don't know what would have happened." A blood test later confirmed it was Lyme Disease, which was probably caused by a tick that fed on a deer in the woods where the family live. Mrs Thorpe said: "We all get bitten by ticks here, but the one which bit William was obviously infected.
"It seems to me that the same thing could happen to anyone who goes for a walk in the wood or the countryside.
"Because of what happened to William I want to urge parents to be vigilant for rashes or red marks from tick bites.
"It's an awful disease, I'm just so relieved William is over it." Internet sites speak of people whose lives have been wrecked by the disease, suffering a catalogue of sickness.
ACROSS the UK, doctors believe there is a rising incidence of Lyme Disease, possibly because of growing awareness of the illness.
It is picked up in woodland or heathland, in areas such as the Quantocks, Exmoor and the Mendips.
Last month the Western Daily Press reported how Andrew Tincknell, from Congresbury, had the disease for months without realising.
And John Pym, from Tintinhull, near Yeovil, battled through three years of suffering before self-diagnosing himself on the internet.