Flesh-Eating Disease Claims Life Of 8-Year-Old After Bike Wreck

PILOT ROCK, OR — Sara Hebard was headed home when she got the call: Her 8-year-old son Liam Flanagan wrecked his bike on the steep driveway of the family's farm in Spring Creek, Oregon. A piece of the handle gouged the boy in his upper thigh. He needed stitches.

That was Saturday, Jan. 13. Eight days later, Liam died. What started as a gash led to necrotizing fasciitis — a flesh-eating disease. By the time doctors realized what was going on in his young body, it was too late.

Liam was a second-grader at Pilot Rock Elementary School. He was just like any kid. He loved animals — he always played with the family's goats — and he loved wearing camouflage. But his "absolute most favorite thing in the world" was Batman, said Hebard, a 37-year-old office manager at a local farm supply store.

Liam's entire room is themed around the superhero.

"He was my little Batman," Hebard told Patch. "He was my hero."

Liam also liked riding his bike. He'd never been in a bad wreck and never needed stitches, so Hebard didn't panic when her son needed to go to the hospital. Active kids get banged up. Seven stitches later, Liam and his mother were on their way home.

Liam seemed fine the first day, Hebard said, but the next day he complained the wound was hurting him. That was probably normal, she thought. After all, he'd just had seven stitches.

"I mean, why wouldn't it be painful?" she wondered. "They were stretching stitches. So we didn't think anything of it."

Liam continued complaining about the pain, but Hebard assumed he was just a kid being a kid.

The following Wednesday, Liam complained at school that he was still in pain. Hebard drove over and gave him an over-the-counter pain medication.

Liam said he'd tough it out, so his mom let him go back to class. That evening, as the family prepared to eat dinner, he said, "Mom, something's wrong."

"My genitals are swollen," he told her.

Sure enough, they were. Hebard's husband, a longtime ranch hand, removed the bandage covering the boy's stitches. Immediately he knew something was wrong.

"It looks like it has gangrene," he said. "We gotta go now. Something is wrong."

He "drove like hell" to the hospital, Hebard said. The boy immediately underwent emergency surgery — but the hospital wasn't equipped to handle such a wound, so Liam was airlifted to Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, arriving on Thursday morning. After a quick assessment, he was back in surgery for something called necrotizing fasciitis.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, necrotizing fasciitis is a serious bacterial infection that destroys soft tissue under the skin and spreads quickly. It can be deadly in a very short amount of time.

About one-in-four patients die from the infection, mostly due to a missed initial diagnosis, old age, diabetes and late presentation.

To stop it, the CDC says it's vital to get an accurate diagnosis, prompt antibiotic treatment, and surgery.

Doctors on Thursday cut out some of Liam's damaged tissue. He received antibiotics that day and doctors said they thought he was doing pretty well under the circumstances. But on Friday night, he awoke to more pain. His stomach hurt, and the pain medications didn't dull it.

Liam went back into surgery and doctors removed tissue and muscle from parts of his thigh and hip. The following morning, on Sunday, doctors cut out flesh all the way up to his armpit.

"At that point they decided they weren't equipped to deal with such extensive wounds," Hebard said.

Liam was rushed to the burn unit at Randall Children's Hospital, but there was nothing they could do. As soon as they arrived, he started to "crash," Hebard said. Doctors said they could do nothing more for her son.

"It didn't really hit me until then because I was positive that he was going to make it through it," she said. "It was horrific, I can tell you that. No parent should ever have to go through that."

Now Hebard wants other parents to hear Liam's story in hopes they can avoid the same tragic ending. The major warning sign of flesh-eating disease, she was told, is usually a wound that is more painful than it ought to be.

The bacteria sits between the skin and muscle. There are no outward signs and you can't tell you have it simply by looking at it. It releases proteins into the blood and spreads. Doctors have to wait until the area becomes agitated enough to do anything — but even then, there's no cure.

"It's horrific. It's absolutely horrific," Hebard said. "The way of dealing with it now is to chop and pray — cut and pray. Just try to cut it out."

Hebard has to believe Liam died for a greater purpose, she said, because more people will get the infection.

"If my son's death can save lives, it gives me a piece of ... that it wasn't wasted," she said. "That it wasn't for no reason. That he lived to save lives."

Hebard will have her son's body cremated. A celebration of life is tentatively planned for Feb. 10 in the gym at Pilot Rock High School. The school's basketball team will wear camouflage uniforms during their game on Friday in Liam's honor.

A GoFundMe account has raised more than $40,000 to cover the medical bills. Other fundraisers are also planned in the area.

Photo credit: GoFundMe