Girl Nearly Dies From Rare Illness Caused By Flesh-Eating Bacteria

An 18-month-old girl almost died after suffering a rare illness that triggered a flesh-eating bacteria to attack her lungs which she may have contracted on the plane on the way to Thailand.

Amarli Marshall, from West Australia, was diagnosed with Streptococcus Necrotising Pneumonia – a life-threatening condition of bacterial lung infection after she travelled with her parents, Sharna and Brendan Marshall and four-year-old sister Kensi on a family holiday to Thailand on June 26.

However, their 10-day trip became a six-week ordeal at an emergency ward at a Bangkok hospital after Amarli fell seriously ill.

Her parents thought at first that she caught a cold, while doctors were baffled by the severe infection that caused her to lose red and white blood cells. “She had a team of doctors working on her; a lung doctor, a kidney doctor, a surgeon, a blood doctor, and an infectious disease specialist, so she had a team of people trying to determine what was wrong,” Mrs Marshall told Colliemail.

Day by day, Amarli’s health deteriorated as a flesh-eating bacteria already attacked her lungs, so doctors had to remove part of her lower left lung to prevent the severe infection from spreading. However, despite her condition, Amarli was surprisingly deemed well enough to be discharged from hospital on August 5.

“The doctors have been amazed at how sick she was, and they were really concerned that we would lose her, and then on the other side of that how quickly she has recovered,” Mrs Marshall said.

Mrs Marshall said that doctors told her Amarli’s lungs are functioning really well for someone who is missing part of a lung, and there will not be any long term impacts on her health.

She said doctors were unsure how Amarli contracted the disease but believed she may have caught it on board after her parents noticed she had a sniffle on the plane.

Amarli’s illness left her family stranded in Thailand for over a month, but they have been given the all clear to fly back home to Perth on Tuesday.

While the travel insurance has helped with Amarli’s medical expenses, family and friends have also set up a GoFundMe page to help the Marshall family.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk