A little girl was left fighting for her life after developing strep A - which turned her chickenpox into a flesh-eating infection, her mum says. Reign Passey, four, spent three weeks in hospital and had to undergo a lifesaving four-hour operation to remove the flesh-eating bacteria.
She has been left with a large scar on her right side - which she tells people she imaginatively got from "winning a fight against a crocodile". Leanne Passey, 31, says she feared she would lose her daughter - and now wants to warn other parents to watch out for symptoms.
The mum said: "It’s horrendous, you never expect it to happen to you until it does. I just want people to understand that it’s so serious. It wasn’t the chickenpox; it was the strep that got through the wound."
Reign came down with chickenpox on July 4 and initially appeared fine, Leanne says. But three days later the mum noticed her daughter had a temperature and appeared to be low on energy - symptoms of strep A.
She also spotted a red ring around one of the sores – and decided to take her daughter to a doctor. It was then recommended that they visit A&E immediately.
However, when Leanne arrived at hospital, she claims she was told to take some antibiotics and return home - due to the fact Reign was highly contagious. But the mum, who works as an aesthetic practioner, refused to leave.
She was eventually told that there were no beds available and they would not be able to treat her daughter, she claims. Leanne said: “By this point the red ring had almost tripled in size. They were adamant they were too busy, she was too contagious and I needed to take her home.
“I said the only way I was leaving was if they kicked me out - she was deteriorating by the second. They came back again and said there’s no beds. I was crying at this point. I said, ‘My child is really poorly and you’re dismissing her’.
“Everyone I spoke to says they would have left and took her home - but I said, 'No she needs to be seen, there’s no way I’m leaving.”
Leanne then decided to take Reign to Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where they presented at A&E at 9.30pm. However, due to the contagious nature of chickenpox, they were told to wait outside.
They were given a chair and left for another six hours until 3.30am, Leanne claims. Reign was then finally seen by a doctor at 8.30am - 24 hours after Leanne first noticed something wasn’t right.
The mum said: “We got to the hospital at 9.30pm – we sat there until 3.30am. Between those times, her temperature had gone up to almost 42 degrees, she was hallucinating and talking to me.
"She'd gone past the point of screaming and was lying there almost lifeless. I picked her up and carried her through the doors and said someone needs to see my daughter, I feel like she’s dying.
“[The doctors] thought she might have necrotising fasciitis as there was a black mark around the red ring. I’d gone from a child with chickenpox to her needing to go in for major op - I was screaming and I thought there’s a chance she was going to die.”
Leanne had the chance to briefly give her daughter a kiss and a cuddle before she was sent into theatre for four hours. Following the agonising wait, the surgeon came to update them on the surgery.
They said they’d had to make a large cut into her side to cut away the necrotising fasciitis. Reign was taken to intensive care, put in an induced coma to manage the pain and given breathing support.
Leanne said: "They had to leave her wound open because of how fast it spreads. They have to go back into the site and clean it however many times to make sure it’s gone.
“The surgeon said they would come back after 24 hours and take her back down [to theatre]. But because her obs [nursing observations] were okay, they left it for 48 hours – by this time we’d noticed she didn’t look right.
“Her face and body were swollen, she didn’t look right at all. We walked her to theatre and the surgeon explained it had spread and she was in septicaemia – we didn’t know if she was going to survive."
Leanne says doctors then started Reign on "ridiculous amounts of antibiotics" and she recovered. Then youngster also had to have a skin graft on her side was moved to the burns ward to recover.
Reign spent three weeks in hospital recovering before being discharged. Despite being left with a large scar on her side, Leanne says her daughter has recovered well – and likes to tell people she got her scar from "winning a fight against a crocodile".
A spokesperson for Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust said: “When a child arrives at our Emergency Department with an infectious condition, such as chicken pox, steps are taken to move them to a side room or cubicle to safely isolate them from other patients.
“However, in times of very high demand when we are unable to offer this immediately, we identify somewhere for patients to wait away from the waiting room to minimise the risk of infection to other vulnerable patients.
"This is only done when considered safe following an assessment with a clinical professional and we communicate with families that should they have any concerns to notify a member of the clinical team immediately.
“It was an exceptionally busy summer period, all children were triaged by a member of our team very shortly after arrival and would be seen on a number of occasions by clinical professionals in the time before a cubicle became available.
“Chicken pox is a very common childhood illness that would usually last five to seven days.
"In some cases, the skin can get infected, a sign of this could be a high fever after day five, in that situation parents are urged to see a doctor at their GP or Walk In Centre who can prescribe antibiotics to help.
“In some extremely rare cases the infection can be more serious and cause Necrotising Fasciitis, which can be caused by Streptococcal A, which would be treated at the hospital.
“We hope that Reign is doing well in her recovery.”
A spokesperson for Malling Health, which operates the Dudley Urgent Care Centre said: "We are sorry to hear about the experience recently shared with us.
"We are unable to comment on the specific details of the services provided due to patient confidentiality.
"We are proud of the standards of care provided at our centres and we continue to work tirelessly and collaboratively with local NHS partners to ensure all patients are being provided with safe and high-quality care and support."
