“It was lights and sirens,” Columbus mom said when her daughter was transferred to Riley by ambulance.
By Maureen Gilmer, Riley Children’s Health senior writer, mgilmer1@iuhealth.org
Getting your wisdom teeth pulled is no picnic, but for one Columbus teen it was the beginning of a very scary situation that left her hospitalized for 11 days.
Kylie Tharpe, 17, underwent the common orthodontic procedure last month and expected the normal swelling to last a day or two. What she didn’t expect was a rare infection that threatened her life.
The day after the dental surgery, Kylie’s mom, Rachel Banuelos, could see that rather than the swelling going down, it was getting worse, and Kylie had a fever. She called her pediatrician, who prescribed an antibiotic the next day, but within hours, the swelling on the left side of her daughter’s face was much worse.
Doctors in the emergency department at a Columbus hospital took one look at her and called for a transfer via ambulance to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.
Banuelos, who up until that point thought doctors were just being extra-cautious, rode with her daughter in the ambulance.
“It was lights and sirens,” she said. “I knew it was serious.”
The whole ordeal was terrifying, said Banuelos, who slept in her daughter’s hospital room every night.
“If we had waited another day, it could have been much worse.”
Riley infectious disease specialists diagnosed Kylie with a rare complication of bacterial infection called Lemierre syndrome. (The estimated worldwide incidence is one in 1 million.) While the bacteria that cause Lemierre’s live naturally in the human body, the complication with severe infection is unusual.
“It’s a pretty rare secondary effect of mouth infection, where the infection spreads, causing an infected clot in the neck or surrounding tissue,” explained Dr. Shaina Hecht, one of the infectious disease physicians who treated Kylie.
About 90 percent of cases occur from the spread of Fusobacterium necrophorum, a bacterium found in the stomach, large intestine, small intestine, colon and throat. It can spread to the neck, head, heart and lungs.
Calling it a stroke of bad luck, Dr. Hecht said kids can get infections after teeth are pulled, “but I’ve never seen this severe of an infection after a wisdom teeth extraction.”
“She was lucky it didn’t go into her lungs,” the physician said, adding that while it is rare, Riley has seen it before and knows how to get it under control.
In Kylie’s case, that meant lots of antibiotics and two surgeries to clean out the infected area. She spent time in the pediatric intensive care unit and on the infectious disease floor before she finally recovered enough to get out of bed last week.
Kylie, a high school senior and travel volleyball player, was looking forward to going home and sleeping in her own bed. She’s still trying to process what happened over the past few weeks.
“A few weeks ago, I was my normal self, playing volleyball, working and hanging out with my friends,” she said. “How did this happen?”
That’s a question doctors really have no answer for, but the takeaway for parents is to listen to your kids and speak up when you have concerns, Dr. Hecht said.
“We always tell parents that if they’re worried about their child, if they feel like they’re not improving as expected, to always call. I tell families to trust their ‘spidey sense,’ to err on the side of caution.”
Kylie is home now, watching movies, snuggling with the kittens her cat gave birth to while she was hospitalized, and finishing up a six-week course of antibiotics. She will follow up with endocrinology, infectious disease and the surgery team at Riley, but she is expected to make a full recovery.
Photos submitted and by Mike Dickbernd, IU Health visual journalist, mdickbernd@iuhealth.org
Related Doctor
Shaina M. Hecht, MD
Related Doctors