It started like any other Saturday. The kind of day you don’t even think twice about, because everything feels normal, boring even. Shopping with the kids, laughing, begging for treats in the store aisles, the usual chaos. Nobody expects their life to flip upside down between the toy aisle and bedtime. But that’s precisely what happened.
Her six-year-old son Noah was playing with his brothers, running around like always, when he suddenly clutched his head and cried that it hurt. A headache. Nothing too unusual for a kid, right? She gave him some children’s pain medicine, and when he perked up a little, she thought the worst was over. Later, the boys begged to spend the night at Nana and Papa’s house. She said yes, thinking it would give everyone a fun night.
The next morning her mother-in-law mentioned Noah still had a headache. Again, nothing alarming. A little more pain medicine, some rest on the couch, and she planned to pick them up after running to the store. But then came the call that no parent ever forgets. Her mother-in-law’s voice was sharp with fear: “Something is wrong, Noah’s not acting right… he won’t answer.” In the background, her father-in-law echoed it, “He wasn’t himself, something isn’t right.” Then the words that froze her: “I’m calling 911. Get here now.”
By the time they reached the house, EMS was already there. Noah’s lips were blue, his little body limp. His eyes were fixed, staring upward. He had just had a seizure. Parents talk about their worst nightmare, but watching your child slip away in front of you is beyond a nightmare. It’s terror you can’t wake up from. In the ambulance, his temperature spiked to 102.3. They thought it was a febrile seizure brought on by a fever. But then he had another seizure, and almost a third before they managed to stop it with medicine. The ride to the hospital was a blur of sirens, tears, and prayers that didn’t sound like words.
At the hospital came the tests. Blood work, CT scan, chest X-ray, and spinal tap. All the things you never think your child will need. The results trickled back, and the answer was one she’d never even heard of before: La Crosse encephalitis. Caused by a mosquito bite. A tiny bug most of us swat away without a thought had sent her son into seizures, had put fluid around his brain, had stolen his spark in the span of a single weekend.
Days passed, and Noah hardly opened his eyes. He slept almost constantly, waking only when pain medication wore off and his body writhed in discomfort. Antibiotics, seizure meds, morphine, Tylenol, ibuprofen — a whole list of drugs for a six-year-old who just days ago had been running and laughing in a store. The doctors explained he would turn a corner eventually, that his body would fight back fast once it started. But waiting for that corner was excruciating.
She kept thinking about how she had always used bug spray and how cautious she was with her five boys. And still, a mosquito bite found its way in. Noah, her spunky little guy who usually bounced back from everything, was now fragile in a hospital bed. Two of his brothers had watched the seizure, and the fear in their eyes broke her heart all over again.
Family stepped in, juggling the other children, while she and her husband sat by Noah’s side. The machines beeped, the nurses checked vitals, and the hours blurred. She prayed, not only for healing, but that no other parent would learn about La Crosse encephalitis the way she had. Because here’s the truth: it is more common than people think, especially in their area. Yet she had five children and had never even heard of it until it nearly took one of them away. That is why she tells the story. To warn other parents. To remind them that bug spray isn’t perfect, but it matters. That checking matters. That sometimes, the tiniest things are the most dangerous.
Her son’s fight is still ongoing. The fevers linger, the headaches are brutal, and the family is exhausted. But through it all, she keeps repeating that no baby deserves this. And for Noah, his brothers, and every child who runs barefoot through summer grass, she hopes parents listen. Because nobody expects a mosquito bite to end with a hospital bed, yet here they are.
