While Aimee Partridge and her husband were on their honeymoon with other members of their family, she started seeing a few bruises appear on her daughter’s legs that weren’t there when they left for their trip. Thinking that the areas were just typical bruises, Aimee didn’t think anything else of any health issues that Brogan might have been facing. However, only a short time later, Brogan would experience an emergency that no one saw coming. Brogan had an eye infection that she was treated for about two weeks before her mother started seeing the bruises on her legs. Since she was given antibiotics, they thought that it would be the end of the ordeal and that she would be alright. When the bruises started to appear, they became darker in color and started expanding over her legs. Aimee took her daughter to the doctor who then sent her to Birmingham Children’s Hospital as an emergency case.
When doctors performed tests, they discovered that the bruises were signs of bacterial meningitis. Unfortunately, doctors were unable to save part of Brogan’s leg and had to remove her foot in order to try to keep the bacteria from spreading through the rest of her body. The bruises on Brogan’s legs didn’t look like a typical rash, which is why Aimee didn’t think that they could be a sign of an infection or meningitis. It’s possible that Brogan could have had meningitis in her body before the eye infection started. That would have been the culprit of the eye infection. This is because meningitis tends to break down the immune system, making it hard for the body to fight off other infections and viruses.
One of the first things that most people look for if they suspect meningitis is a rash, which is why Aimee didn’t think about the condition when she saw a few bruises on her child. After Brogan’s foot was amputated, she was soon fitted with a prosthesis so that she could learn how to walk once again. Unfortunately, Brogan’s leg still caused a significant amount of pain for the little girl. The infection in the leg kept spreading even after antibiotic treatment. Doctors decided to amputate the rest of the leg at least to the knee. Two years later, Brogan still has difficulty with the leg that she still has and could require more surgery. However, Aimee knows that they did what was right to try to keep the spread of the infection to a minimum. With a prosthetic, Aimee hopes that Brogan can learn how to walk and even run and play like she did before the symptoms started. Aimee tries to get parents to pay attention to their children as much as possible because the bruises weren’t the typical symptom of a severe issue.
