An 11-year-old boy lost his life after his family said a flesh-eating bacteria entered his body.
It all started with an ankle injury and now, they want to bring awareness so other families do not have to deal with the heartbreak.
Jesse Brown was a healthy 11-year-old who rode motocross, was in 5th grade and was full of energy. Now his family is grieving his loss.
“In my mind, I was in complete disbelief. I was like, he’ll be fine. This could never happen to our family,” said Brown’s cousin, Megan.
Megan said Jesse hurt his ankle while on a treadmill a few weeks ago and days after that, Jesse’s mom woke up to a startling sight.
“His whole leg was covered in splotchy, purply, red, almost like bruises,” she said.
From there, Megan said Jesse was admitted to the ICU.
Doctors diagnosed him with Group-A streptococcus, which is a bacteria that can lead to many different infections.
Within a few days, the family said that turned into a flesh-eating bacteria, causing Jesse’s brain to swell. He eventually died.
Orlando pediatrician Dr. Candice Jones said there has been a recent uptick of invasive strep cases among children in the U.S.
“Some of the speculations has been that some of those cases started after respiratory infections, and we had been seeing an uptick in those types of infections anyway post-pandemic,” she said.
Jones added in very rare cases, Group-A strep can cause a secondary infection like a flesh-eating disease.