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A video posted by a mother who was left horrified after her daughter suffered sudden paralysis, unable to walk or use her arms, has gone viral.
Amanda Lewis posted the video of her three-year-old daughter, Evelyn, struggling to stand up on Facebook before rushing her to the hospital.
She had hoped friends and family might be able to help identify the problem, not expecting that the video would be shared thousands of times across social media platforms. But she left the video online after it did, and later said she was "glad to spread some awareness".
Doctors were able to quickly diagnose Evelyn’s symptoms as tick paralysis – which can be fatal.
In the video, Evelyn can be seen trying to stand up and then collapsing several times, before being able to stand with the assistance of her father.
“Try real hard,” he says, as the small girl attempts to stand before falling forward.
In her Facebook post, Ms Lewis, who lives in Oregon, said her daughter had “started acting a little weird around bed time.
“She didn’t want to stand up after her bath to get her into her pajamas. I helped her and got in her bed. She was a little fussy last night and I ended up sleeping in bed with her all night.”
The next morning, however, Ms Lewis said her daughter woke up barely able to stand on her own.
“She could barely walk or crawl, and could hardly use her arms. We took some video ... to send to family to see if they had any idea what could be going on.”
She added: “The doctor talked to us for a minute and said voer the past 15 years he had seen about 7 or 8 children her age with identical symptoms and more than likely she had a tick.
They looked her over, combed through her hair really well and sure enough found a tick hiding in her hair.”
Ms Lewis warned in her post that tick paralysis can affect dogs as well as humans – and can be fatal.
“I’m glad we took her in when we did and that wasn’t something worse and that we found it before it got worse,” she said.
Days after the incident, the mother posted another update to Facebook, after her video continued to be shared by thousands across social media.
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“I didn’t realise how widespread this video would end up,” she said. “So for those of you who don’t know us personally, Evelyn is doing much better.
“My husband and I are still in shock that this happened to our baby girl and I’m glad we were able to spread some awareness about this.
“It’s not terribly common for this to happen but it’s good to be aware that if your children or pets start to have weakness in their limbs to look for a tick.”
In humans, tick paralysis is most commonly found in children under the age of sixteen – and the critters themselves can often be found near the head, the Columbia University Medical Centre says on its website.
Their bites can cause paralysis due to a neurotoxin released through the ectoparasite’s salivary glands during blood meals. Paralysis typically starts in the feet and legs, with many patients experiencing numbness and tingling in the face and limbs.
Unaddressed, tick paralysis can begin to affect the respiratory muscles, which can put patients in life-threatening danger.
But once the tick is found and removed, patients typically recover within a matter of hours, the centre says.
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