'Scratching a mozzie bite landed our daughter in hospital unable to walk'

A Brisbane 9-year-old on a camping adventure had a scary medical emergency that her parents acted on just in time.

Getting bitten by mozzies and midges while on camping adventures is almost a right of passage for Aussie kids.

Usually, they’re itchy for a few days, sometimes need a bandaid, then they heal without any further thought.

For one full-time travelling family, however, an ordinary mozzie bite recently turned into a frightening nightmare they never thought possible.

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The bite that turned nasty

Last month, Bek’s daughter, Ava, started scratching a mosquito bite after being bitten around the family’s campsite in Ballina, NSW.

“Our kids have been bitten by mozzies and midges countless times, and never had a reaction, so I just put some antibacterial mozzie bite scream to help stop the itch,” the Brisbane mum-of-two tells Kidspot.

For the first time ever, this bite didn’t go away on its own.

“On day four, it had doubled in size, was firm and red, and Ava said, ‘It’s starting to get sore, mum’,” Bek says of her nine-year-old. 

Bek applied antibiotic ointment, Bactroban, to the inflamed bite and waited to observe the results the following day. 

On the fifth day, Bek and husband, Doug, were packing up the caravan to leave Ballina due to stormy weather, but Ava’s leg was now causing far more urgent alarm. 

“The bite had tripled in size overnight and she suddenly couldn’t walk,” the 36-year-old remembers.

“We were very worried.”

With every doctor in the town booked out for weeks, Bek immediately sought advice through 13HEALTH. Ava was assessed by a nurse online, and the situation was deemed so serious that she was sent to a Coffs Harbour hospital.

“The doctor took one look at her and he was concerned, because the bite was behind the knee and on a joint, and an infection may have been in that joint,” Bek says. 

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Ava was diagnosed with a staph infection and was put on an IV drip of antibiotics in hospital for three days.

“It was horrible to watch her have to go through something painful as they had to insert a cannula for the antibiotics,” Bek says.

“It was horrific for her. The hospital was amazing but it was a traumatic experience for her.”

What made matters worse was that the first round of antibiotics used on Ava were not effective in treating the staph at all, and tests found her to have MRSA, a rare, resistant strain of the condition.

“It had spread all the way back up her thigh, and the skin was all red and hot, to the point that her lymph nodes were swollen,” Bek says. 

A completely different, new round of antibiotics were administered orally, and with Ava now able to walk again, she was able to return to the caravan, which was now parked in a campground closer to the hospital.

“She was on antibiotics for two weeks, but the wound care is the hardest part,” Bek says. “You can’t use normal bandaids, you have to use big healing pads and change them two to three times a day, and you can’t get them wet, and there are all sorts of rules around it.” 

As for how Ava contracted staph, doctors told Bek it was just from her scratching her mozzie bites.

“It was explained to me that we carry staph on our skins, however it takes someone who has it under their nails and has scratched an open sore, and once it gets into your bloodstream, it’s hard to get out,” she explains.

What Bek had no idea of at the time, and was not initially warned about, is how common it is to have recurrences unless you eradicate the colonised bug.

Painfully, that’s exactly what happened to Ava just one month later, when they had travelled down to Geelong while documenting their travels via The Scenic Route Australia blog.

“She got a pimple on the top of her bottom, and as soon as I saw it was getting a little bit infected, I put Bactroban on it straight away and it cleared up within three to four days,” Bek says.

“But then she got a scratch on the back of her leg, and we put a bandaid on it straight away, and three days later it started swelling up, and we put the Bactroban on it again.”

RELATED: How to decode bites and stings this summer

What NOT to do when a bite turns bad

The scratch, however, was the start of a whole new nightmare.

“We made the mistake of putting those tough bandaids on, and taking them off left spots of open skin, and within two days, there were eight spots that had all turned into golden staph,” Bek says.   

Ava was immediately taken to a local doctor, and once again, was administered antibiotics which didn’t reduce the infection at all.

“They actually got worse - and we ended up in emergency again,” the exhausted mum says. “The doctors there confirmed she’d been given the wrong one, but thankfully the ones she was given orally worked this time.”   

On the hospital’s advice, the family, who are now travelling through Mount Gambier, are currently doing an “eradication program” of the colonised staph, where they completely clean the caravan, wash all bedding, clothing and towels in a hot wash with disinfectant.

“It’s a big process - we have to strip the car seats, wash them and spray the whole car down.” 

So far, no one else but Ava has so far been affected, but the entire family is bathing in chlorhexidine surgical wash as part of the eradication.

While Eva’s wounds have healed, the physical and emotional scars of two serious staph infections remain.

“She’s scared to scratch or touch any sore on her body now, and she’s worried it’s going to stay in her body forever,” Bek says.

“She’s also got scars on the back of both of her legs now.”

While Eva’s wounds have healed, the physical and emotional scars of two serious staph infections remain. Image: Supplied

Life on the road - with new challenges

With their travels planned to continue until their return to Brisbane in September after 18 months on the road, the family are taking every precaution to remain healthy while still enjoying the adventure they set out on.

“We’re coming into colder weather, so Ava’s been wearing long sleeve tops and pants now, and nails are all kept very short,” Bek says.

“We have sanitiser handy now too. We’re not going to wrap her in cotton wool, but we’ve made lots of changes, and let the kids know to tell us as soon as they get a bite or a scratch.”

They also now use mozzie patches, which are applied over a bite to relieve itching and protect it from being touched by anything that may infect it.

Oh, and they’ll also be avoiding anything inflatable, after seven-year-old son, Connor broke his arm after falling onto concrete from a jumping castle in regional NSW, just weeks after Ava’s first staph infection.

“It hasn’t been a great couple of months on our lap, but we’re hanging in there and hoping there’s no more emergency room visits before we finish.”

Originally published as 'Scratching a mozzie bite landed our daughter in hospital unable to walk'