While the 7-year-old girl’s mother, Aimee, was on vacation with her husband, she spotted black and blue marks on her daughter’s, Brogan, legs. Unfortunately, the mom assumed they were bruises. Just 12 days before the bruises appeared, the little girl was diagnosed with an eye infection and was given antibiotics. Little did they know at the time, the marks were actually not bruises and instead they were a symptom of a serious disease.\u00a0The 7-year-old was taken to a hospital, where doctors were forced to amputate her left foot to save her life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked nothing like a rash, it looked more like bruising \u2013 at the time I never thought it was meningitis and that\u2019s the problem,\u201d said Aimee, who feels like the marks didn\u2019t resemble the images that she had seen for meningitis symptoms.\u00a0\u201cOne thought we had was that maybe Brogan contracted meningitis first somehow and that\u2019s how she contracted conjunctivitis \u2013 because meningitis attacks the immune system and makes you more susceptible to other diseases \u2013 but we can\u2019t be sure,\u201d said Aimee. \u201cWhen people are aware of what symptoms to look out for with meningitis, they say look for a rash but that\u2019s not what it looked like to me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brogan was soon fitted for a prosthetic foot and they thought that while they had challenges ahead, the worst was behind them. But, Brogan\u2019s remaining leg was in constant pain as a result of the infection and the family had to make a decision whether or not to amputate that one as well. The infection had caused the main blood vessel in her remaining leg to die, leaving her in a lot of pain.\u00a0\u201cAlongside the doctors, we all, including Brogan, decided that this was the best decision going forward for her,\u201d Aimee said. \u201cThe remaining leg was 50\/50 and it required major surgery but she had a reoccurring infection. The infection has spread up to her knee and the leg is just too weak and could put her at risk later in life if we keep it,\u201d said Aimee. \u201cThe main blood vessel in her leg died and it is not getting blood to her foot \u2013 also the tendon for the toes died too. The weaker the foot gets the more susceptible it is to damage.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The girl’s mom also said that if they decided to keep the remaining leg, there is a chance that the disease could get worse and spread further, leading to even more complications down the road.\u00a0\u201cShe knows the process and it\u2019s not nice but children tend to adapt quickly to situations and I think that\u2019s what Brogan is going to do,\u201d said Aimee. \u201cAt first she was really upset but now she is realistic and really just wants it done and dusted. Having one foot to having none is going to be very different for Brogan \u2013 she\u2019s going to lose the last bit of independence she has. There are always risks in everything but this is the sole solution that we and the doctors came too. They can never guarantee it won\u2019t come back. We always hoped it wouldn\u2019t have to come to this but after seeing the impact it was having on her we thought it\u2019s the best option we have. Dear readers, we are republishing this story<\/a><\/strong> to raise awareness about bacterial meningitis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the 7-year-old girl’s mother, Aimee, was on vacation with her husband, she spotted black and blue marks…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-trending","8":"cs-entry","9":"cs-video-wrap"},"yoast_head":"\n