Dear Parent (s) or guardian (s),
In compliance with the 85th Legislature, Senate Bill 1566, Section 14; Subchapter A, Chapter 38, Sec 38.031, we are required to inform parents that a student or students in your child’s grade level have been found to have head lice.
There is no law in our state that addresses excluding children with head lice from school. Lice are not a public health threat. They do not carry disease. As such, the Department of Health and State Services does urge school districts to ensure that it’s policies and procedures do not cause children to miss class unnecessarily. Our goal is to keep all parents informed about identified cases of head lice and how to treat and prevent them. Our challenge is to accomplish this without causing embarrassment and isolation for students who suffer from cases of head lice. Thank you in advance for working with our school to make sure that we have the best possible environment for our students.
I’ve dealt with head lice before. Some girl brought it over when Misty, my oldest, had a sleepover about two years ago. I thought I knew what to do and since the email came through Thursday night I thought I would have time to handle it.
I immediately got Jonah out of his school clothes and told him to get in the shower and soap his hair thoroughly.
My plan was to run down to CVS and buy some strong Ivermectin. I know the stuff kinda stinks but it does the trick.
That never happened.
Instead as I tossed his clothes in the dryer and then began to do the same with his bed sheets, I realized that he was taking longer in the shower than normal and shouted to him. “Is everything okay?”
When he didn’t respond I became worried. I rattled the door and eventually got it loose running into the bathroom to see that he had collapsed unconscious in the shower.
Immediately I dialed 911 and turned off the water. I started checking him for injuries, especially the head.
That was when I saw what the school had said was lice.
These did not look like tiny little insects that I had seen on Misty. They looked a little bigger with larger pinchers and a little more aggressive than a typical head lice. It looked like when Jonah had washed his hair they had dug into his scalp to keep from drowning and caused his skin to become even more agitated.
The paramedics came in less than ten minutes and we made it to the hospital in about thirty. I told them what I saw and they ordered tests.
When they got back and we were waiting on results I asked him how he was feeling.
“Like my whole head is on fire,” he admitted.
They had placed bandages on the irritated skin and I told him to lean forward so I could get a better look.
Pulling the gauze away, I found myself stifling back a wail as I saw the redness in his scalp was now much worse. And the strange tiny creatures that were digging into his skin had gone even deeper, creating cuts in his flesh.
I called for a nurse and asked if there was a way for us to shave his hair and begin immediate treatment but she insisted I needed to wait for a nurse. Jonah kept scratching and scratching even making himself bleed and I eventually could not wait anymore and went to find the shavers myself.
On the way to the nurses station I ran into one of the techs that had run a scan of Jonah and I asked if the results were in.
He told me no but offered to assist me with the shaving. We hurried back to the room and I told Jonah to turn his head as we took off the wrappings and the tech covered his mouth in shock.
It looked like the top of my son’s head was peeling off and rotting the way an old banana does. Scars and bruises seemed to cover the part of the scalp we could see and something told me when we began to shave things would be even worse.
I told Jonah to remain still as the tech started the process but it wasn’t easy. I could see that when the blade was cutting his hair it was also causing pain to my son. I gripped his hand and tried to hold him but it wasn’t working.
The creatures were burrowing deeper into his scalp and when we got down to the bare skin I could see that everything we were doing was only causing more harm than good.
I told the tech to stop, tears welling in my eyes as I held Jonah and he moaned in pain.
That kept going for twenty minutes until the main ER Doctor entered the room with the results. His face told me that it wasn’t what I would want to hear.
“We’ve never seen anything like this before,” he said as he showed me what the scans revealed. The insects were larger than I anticipated. Longer and cylindrical; they had dug straight into my son’s skin and even hit his bone. And it looked like they were intending on going deeper.
“This could cause brain damage if left untreated. I recommend a full round of broad spectrum antibiotics and then we schedule Jonah for surgery to get these removed,” the doctor said.
I asked him how long that might be and he told me the only pediatric surgeon wasn’t available until Monday.
“Meaning my son will be writhing in pain and experiencing possible damage to his mental health because no one here is qualified??” I asked in shock.
They admitted there was little more they could do but they were attempting to contact other hospitals in the tri-county area.
I sat there for an hour trying to decide what I should do as Jonah continued to try and scratch. Eventually I asked the nurses to bind his hands to his stretcher as I realized his nails were ripping off bits of flesh.
The nurses and other staff seemed to begin to give us a wide berth and I got the idea they were frightened by this unusual condition as well.
Another hour passed and they gave Jonah a sedative to let him rest as I checked his scalp.
The damage these things had done to my son’s head was beyond horrific.
They had caused large scars to cover every bit of his forehead and cranial area, eating up his skin and burning away at his tissue and muscle. I could even see faint hints of his skull where there was bruising.
In that moment I sobbed and took out my phone. Desperation made me call Jonah’s dad, someone I haven’t talked to in almost two years.
“I can pull some strings to get him to a surgeon. But you’ll have to drive all night to get here,” he said.
I told him it was worth it and then demanded they let me check Jonah out so we could begin the drive.
Of course the doctors advised otherwise but I wasn’t about to just let him lay there suffering for a few more days.
Putting him in the backseat of the car I gave him pillows and blankets to keep him comfortable and began the drive.
It was so late and I was exhausted but I pushed through, constantly checking the rear view mirror to see his condition. He woke up about an hour into the drive, moaning in pain and asking for me to pull over.
“Sweetie I can’t. I’m trying to get you to a doctor,” I told him. He began to vomit blood in the backseat and I braked hard.
Putting my flashers on I got out of the way of oncoming traffic and unbuckled.
“It hurts so bad mom,” he said. I offered him the last of the pain pills as I stared at the bandages around his head. They were soaked in blood from the damage these insects were causing.
He tried his best to swallow it and then I laid him down and gave him a McDonald’s bag to keep puking into. I had to focus on the drive.
My mom called about ten minutes later, checking on us and reporting that Misty was sound asleep.
“How’s our boy? Did you get the lice handled?” she asked. She seemed to think my trip to the hospital was an overreaction and before I could explain the situation he vomited again and I hung up.
All Jonah could do was shake and scream, begging me to give him more medicine but I had nothing to offer.
I sped up, placing my emergency flashers on. I had to get to my ex husband as quickly as possible.
I made it there by 3:30 in the early morning and drizzle came down as I pulled my car up to the ER he told me to head for. Jonah had been scratching again and the bandages were torn apart. His head hardly had any skin left and was now just a mangled mess of blood and loose hair and tissue. He pulled back his bloody nails and I saw that bits of bone from his skull were also tearing off.
As the rain hit his scalp he shuddered in agony.
“My god,” my ex said when he saw how bad it was and they rushed our son toward an operating room.
He had dozens of questions but neither me or the surgeons had answers. As they began to get Jonah prepped for an attempt at extracting these damn bugs, we got more bad news.
“Scans reveal these things are like fishing barbs. They burrow deep through the skin and the tissue and then latch on to prevent themselves from being taken easily. There is a risk that this could cause more harm to your son than good,” the head surgeon told us.
I was trying my best not to hyperventilate.
“Just do whatever you have to do to help him!” I begged.
They promised they would and we had to sign a mountain of paperwork which gave them consent and of course waived any liability. Jonah was unconscious from the pain but his body was still reacting to it. His stats were rising along with his core body temperature. I was certain that the insects were already attacking his brain.
Thankfully my ex husband didn’t use the opportunity to spew hateful words to me about being an awful mother. Instead we were both in an almost catatonic state as we waited for some good news.
But good news never came.
The doctors came out about an hour later to inform us that Jonah was not showing any signs of brain activity.
“His body is still fighting but it doesn’t look like he will be returning home the way he came here,” they admitted.
One of the surgeons said this gave them an opportunity to quit being cautious and they began to extract the slimy writhing bugs.
When I got a chance to see one before they killed it, the thing reminded me of a long thin centipede covered in prickly needles. I am certain that it hissed and shrieked as the doctors crushed it and continued to remove others.
Six hours later, there were no bugs left and our son was in a medically induced coma. It felt like I was dying seeing him suffer, and I felt powerless not knowing if he was going to be okay.
I found sleep only thanks to exhaustion.
When I woke up, it was this morning and I charged my phone.
Mom had called me twice.
“Hey. Sorry I missed your call… Jonah is fine…” I said groggily.
“No no it’s fine… I just wanted to give you a heads up about Misty.”
I become more alert almost instantly.
“Is something the matter?”
“Well it’s just that she was complaining about her head itching really badly…”
“What? Is she okay?”
My heart dropped at her response.
“I’m sure she is fine. I sent her to school. You know she has that field trip today…”
“…I mean… it’s just head lice, right?”