SAN DIEGO — A terrible accident with a child scraping his knee turned into a near deadly bacterial infection.
The Baumkirchner family said while vacationing in San Diego from Lake Havasu, Arizona, their 3-year-old boy, Beauden, had to have both of his legs amputated after he contracted an aggressive staph infection.
They said Beauden fell off his bike and scraped his knee. Then, 48 hours later he was rushed to Rady Children’s Hospital.
“You could visibly see it spreading to his legs and down to his extremities. They thought they were going to lose him the first day. He was almost lifeless,” said Brian Baumkirchner, Beauden's father.
His parents spoke from their son’s hospital bed. On Friday, the boy will receive his 17th surgery in six weeks. He’s been at Rady’s since October surrounded by firefighter toys that he loves.
“This poor little boy has done nothing to anybody, and he is an innocent little boy,” said Baumkirchner.
The Infectious Disease Medical Director at Rady Children’s Hospital, Dr. John Bradley, and said it’s a miracle his patient is alive.
“The parents were so in tune with him that when he didn’t act well, they brought him right to the emergency room. If they waited even an hour or two more, he would have been dead. He wouldn't have survived,” said Bradley.
He said this is an unusually aggressive strain of staph. It looks like MRSA, but acts like meningococcal bacterial meningitis, invading Beauden’s little body sending it into toxic shock. He will lose some his fingers as well.
“This is a wolf in sheep's clothing. It's vicious, but when the lab says, 'oh this methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus' (MSSA) but you think my God, this boy is so sick with this bacteria. It doesn't make any sense,” said Bradley.
The specialist believes this is an isolated case, but still reported it to health officials.
“We don't know where the bacteria came from that got on poor Beauden,” said Bradley. "This is a fluke. This a one off. You can't as a parent, every time they fall and scrape their knee bring them to the emergency department.”
News of Beauden’s ordeal has helped raise more than $100,000 that can help with mounting hospital bills and the need for advanced prosthetics.
“He may be able to control these limbs himself in 10 years. It's science fiction, but it's bringing hope to the parents that he will be ok,” said Bradley.
To help the Baumkirchner family or send encouraging words visit this GoFundMe.