Mum's panic as baby went 'flat and floppy' after bite from common garden pest

16 November 2023 , 19:34

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Carmelle Leahey's son Isaac was bitten by a tick and could barely walk at their home on Sydney's northern beaches. (Image: 7 News)

A distraught mum has warned parents after her baby boy went "flat and really floppy" after playing in their garden - due to a common garden pest.

Carmelle Leahey's 17-month-old son Isaac was bitten by a tick and could barely walk. She rushed the tot to hospital, where medics saved his life but warned he was very fortunate to survive.

Ms Leahey said: "It was such an ordeal. It was really scary. He couldn't walk to me anymore. He was just flat, really floppy." Tick bites can be deadly if untreated and they can cause severe allergic reactions. People who suffer allergic reactions may find it difficult to breathe and can even collapse.

Carmelle Leahey has issued a desperate warning to all parents (7 News)

Warning other parents of the dangers, Ms Leahey, from Sydney, Australia, said: "Check your children, check behind their ears, check in between their fingers and toes."

Common symptoms of tick bites include slurred speech, tiredness, and a loss of balance. Paralysis ticks are the most common forms of the pests in Australia and most of the insects are often found in dense bushland across coastal parts of the country.

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In the UK, when a mum from Sevenoaks, Kent, was bitten by a tick in her garden, she battled crippling Lyme disease as a result. Lorraine Damonte, 47, fought the vile bacterial illness for almost ten years and at one point thought she was going to die.

But her pain did not stop there as her two young daughters, Nicole and Madeline, were also struck down with Lyme disease in an unfortunate series of coincidences which occurred when she was at her lowest ebb.

Speaking exclusively to Mirror, the mum of two said it was nothing short of "a miracle" that the three of them survived. Lorraine explained: "It was traumatic for them to get it too. I was so ill for so long. I felt like I had turned into a robot.

"There was a little voice in my mind that was telling me the only way out was to die. Then my daughters had it on separate occasions when I was so weak. My youngest, Madeleine, was hysterical. She screamed: 'I don't want to die. I don't want to be like you'."

Bradley Jolly