A three-year-old boy visiting family in San Diego, CA, had both legs amputated after suffering from a severe Staph infection.
The young boy, Beauden Baumkirchner, had been camping with family when he fell off his bike and scraped his knee. Less than 48 hours later, Beauden was hospitalized at Rady Children’s Hospital after his knee swelled up and he ran a fever.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Mom Survives Rare Heart Attack Four Days After Welcoming Twins
Beauden has fallen off his bike “many, many times” his father Brian Baumkirchner told NBC 12 News. No one in the family anticipated that the fall would result in such a nightmare.
After his fall, the family cleaned and bandaged the wound, thinking that it would just take a couple of days to heal. The next day, however, Beauden began not feeling well and his family took him to the hospital.
“The ICU doctor said that his labs, when he came in, were of concern, for sure. But the lab work at 1 p.m., just three hours later, his whole body was shutting down,” his father told the local news station “They thought they were going to lose him, for sure, that night.”
Doctors soon identified that a Staph infection has spread through his body.
“The Staph infection — they knew it was some kind of bacterial infection, but weren’t sure what it was — but you can see it spreading in his legs, down to all of his extremities,” his dad continued. “They thought they were going to lose him for sure that first day.”
The Staph infection caused a loss of blood flow through his legs and while the doctors and nurses did everything they could to get his circulation moving again, he ultimately had to have both legs amputated above the knee, as well as several fingers. Beauden has already gone through 17 surgeries and is currently in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
His parents are both in San Diego while Beauden recovers and have set up a GoFundMe to help offset their medical bills and living costs.
“This poor little boy has done nothing to anybody; he’s just this innocent little boy,” his dad said, trying to make sense of a chaotic situation. “Don’t take any days for granted, that’s for sure.”