Aussie mum's playground warning after 4-year-old child hospitalised
The incident has highlighted a little-known infection risk lurking at your local playground.
An Aussie mum says her four-year-old daughter could have suffered permanent eye damage or been forced to have her finger amputated after a playground incident she warns could happen to any child.
Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, Casey described how Abigail was playing in a sandpit earlier this month when someone threw sand that landed in her face. Over the next few days, things took a grim turn as the little girl's eye grew puffier.
"We took her to the doctors and were told it's just a bit of sand, that the sand was now out, but that it had scratched and irritated the cornea," 35-year-old Casey said. "They said it was bacterial conjunctivitis and it would sort itself out."
But 48 hours later, Abigail's eye was "bloodshot, super inflamed and she was getting quite emotional over how her eye looked and felt". She was also having problems with her finger. "She'd been rubbing her eye constantly and she happened to have a little cut in her finger which was turning red," Casey, who also has a one-year-old, explained.
The GP prescribed a course of antibiotics, hoping it would treat both the girl's eye and finger. "While the eye started getting better over the next couple of days, the finger went in the opposite direction," said the Perth mother of two. "It looked like once the bacteria was in the finger, there was nowhere for it to escape to, and then the abscess appeared."
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Around 36 hours after starting the course of antibiotics, Abigail's finger was "really red, quite hot to touch, and you could see the infection spreading", so the family ended up in hospital where doctors scheduled little Abigail for surgery to remove the entire fingernail. While they waited for the operation, the situation continued to spiral.
"Literally over the course of the 12 hours, sitting in the hospital overnight, even with IV antibiotics, it just went black," Casey said. "The abscess had grown legs and her poor finger was twice the size."
'It can happen anywhere'
With her fingernail removed, abscess drained and a glove to protect her finger, Abigail is now back home with her family, while her mum is urging parents to be wary of the dangers of playgrounds and not to take anything for granted. "You don't think of the dirtiness of public sandpits and the bacteria that comes from that," Casey said, "but it can happen anywhere."
She wants families to be conscious of the bacterial levels in the community and to teach their children good hygiene practices and good social skills "so that these things don't happen".
"It could have been a lot worse and we are so thankful we were able to get help when we did," the mum explained. "Seeing how quickly it developed, thankfully we were able to take time off work. Had we not been in that position, we would probably have been looking at some permanent eye damage or amputation of the finger."
What parents should know
It's important to remember that any abrasion, whether it's a break in the skin or in mucous membranes such as the eye, can allow bacteria to get in, says Dr Kieran Le Plastrier, Assistant Professor of General Practice at Bond University.
"The risk is modest unless the person is immunocompromised so their immune system is not functioning normally," he told Yahoo. "For most people, we can resist those kinds of bacteria, but sometimes they do get through our defences and cause infections."
Once bacteria gets into the body, Dr Plastrie added that it can "pop up in little islands", like what happened with Abigail's finger.
When it comes to the eye, Dr Plastrier said the biggest risk is to the cornea. "If you get an abrasion and bacteria gets in there, it can cause scarring which will distort vision," he explained. "And in the worst case scenarios that can cause a loss of vision."
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