HOW THIS YOUNG GIRL GOT HER SMILE BACK
IT COVERED HALF HER FACE AND TOOK TWO OPERATIONS TO CLEAR
A Bangor mum has revealed the horror abscesses that appeared on her daughter’s neck and took two operations to clear.
Jody Owen’s daughter Amelia needed two bouts of surgery at Liverpool’s Alder Hey Hospital to remove the lumps, which she said appeared after having four teeth removed in June.
The lump extended from behind the five year-old’s ear to her jaw and would not respond to antibiotics.
Miss Owen, who is a self-employed beauty therapist, said she was worried the lump would cause septicaemia after the first operation was unsuccessful. “I was so worried,” she said. “Because I don’t shout and scream I felt the doctors didn’t really take notice of me and I didn’t really know what was going on.
“They kept giving her antibiotics and they just weren’t working.
“The second time I didn’t want it to turn into septicaemia and I was worried something more serious might be wrong.”
Amelia was first admitted to Ysbyty Glan Clwyd on September 5 and given antibiotics before being sent home with more. Two weeks later, after the abscess showed no signs of dispersing, she was given stronger antibiotics before eventually being readmitted on September 22 because they were not working.
“The abscess looked like half of her face,” said Miss Owen.
“Finally after five days the hospital contacted Alder Hey and we waited another two days for a bed to become available.
“They had been treating it as an infectio, but the antibiotics weren’t working.
“Alder Hey said it was an abscess straight away.”
Doctors operated on Amelia on September 29.
She was kept there for a further three days before being sent home to Bangor with more antibiotics.
“After she had the operation most of the lump had gone but behind her ear was quite hard,” Miss Owen explained. “I was worried it was not going.
“We went back to Ysbyty Gwynedd on October 21 and they said we needed to go back to Alder Hey.”
As there was no transport she had to drive little Amelia to Alder Hey, complete with IV drip, through Storm Brian.
She was operated on the next day and it was successful.
Her mum added: “Poor Amelia. She’s been a really good girl, but it was traumatic for her the second time because she knew what going to a happen.”
Thankfully the only lasting legacy is that Amelia has been warned off going to gymnastics and swimming for a few weeks.
“If it happened again I would take her straight to Alder Hey,” said her mum.