Distressing photos show four-year-old's body ravaged by meningococcal B
Parents have released harrowing photos of their little girl ravaged with lesions in a bid to have the meningococcal B strain added to the vaccination list.
Four-year-old Jazmyn Parkyn from Renwick in South Australia spent an entire month in hospital last year after contracting the potentially deadly infection when dark spots spread all over her body within hours.
The little girl endured 15 skin grafts to repair the dead tissue left all over her legs and body.
The nightmare began when Jazmyn woke with a fever on the evening of August 26 2015, which parents Sarah, 32, and Aaron Parkyn, 35, assumed was related to the flu virus she had been suffering from.
Sarah knew something was terribly wrong when her daughter screamed in pain when she tried to pick her up the next morning.
"She couldn't stand anything touching her legs. She just kept screaming," Mrs Parkyn told the Daily Mail.
"I noticed a couple of marks on her legs, but it just looked like a heat rash."
The parents took Jazmyn to the GP who sent her to Renmark Paringa District Hospital immediately on seeing a small bruise on her chest.
From there, the little one was rushed to Adelaide's Women's and Children's Hospital after suffering a 'terrifying' seizure where she was diagnosed with meningococcal B.
Now, Jazmyn's little body was completely covered in dark spots.
"The morning we got to Adelaide, Jazmyn only had one tiny spot on her chest – but by 10pm that night, they were everywhere," Sarah said,
Nurses told the mother that although the medicine appeared to be working, she wasn't out of the woods yet.
"That's when it hit home how serious things were. It was really scary to hear."
Jazmyn spent four weeks in hospital undergoing scans, blood tests and 15 skin grafts to mend the spots of dead tissue on her body.
"I thought the spots on her legs were just bruising, and that they'd go away," Sarah said.
"But they were actually dead tissue. She's had about 15 skin grafts in total, but she's a very tough, resilient little girl."
Jazmyn has made a full recovery from her ordeal, but her parents are passionate about campaigning for an easily accessible vaccine for meningococcal B via their facebook page Jazmyn's meningococcal B journey.
"When doctors told us Jazmyn had meningococcal B, it was a complete shock," said Mrs Parkyn.
"She was completely up to date with her immunisations, but we had no idea that this didn't include being covered against the B strain.
"At the moment, you have to pay for it privately, which we would have done, had we known. All those times we'd been to the doctors to discuss immunisations, and nobody ever mentioned it.
"This disease can cost people their lives or limbs, or cause major scarring. Shouldn't that be enough of a reason to put it on the national immunisation programme?"
Sarah and Aaron have sent a petition to parliament urging for the vaccine to be added to the standard immunisation list.
News break – June 14
