Julia Lewis had been an energetic preschooler who loved to spend her summers
leaping through the ocean waves with her dad, Jay, near her home in Westbrook, Maine. But her life
changed suddenly three years ago. One August afternoon, her mother, Becky, noticed that Julia had
bruised-looking circles beneath her eyes. Two days later, the 3-year-old developed a pink rash
on her arms, legs, and face. The doctor told Becky it was probably just a virus - nothing to worry about.
But Julia's splotches didn't go away. They would fade overnight
and then flare up again the next evening, often accompanied by a high fever. Becky's concern
turned to alarm a few days later when her daughter complained that her legs hurt and she
couldn't walk. At first, Becky - who was holding her 9-month-old son, Thomas - thought her
daughter might simply be looking for some extra attention. But she soon realized that Julia
wasn't faking it: Her feet, knees, ankles, and wrists were stiff and very swollen. "Mommy,
I can't move my hands!" she screamed.
Becky rushed Julia to an urgent-care center. The attending
doctor, thinking Julia was having an intense allergic reaction to something, prescribed
prednisone, an oral steroid medication, to calm down her immune system. When Julia's symptoms
persisted for another week, Becky took her to an allergist. He ran a series of blood tests,
which revealed a severely elevated white-blood-cell count (often an indicator of infection).
"He told me that Julia would need to be hospitalized for IV steroid treatment," Becky says.
"I was in tears. I called my husband at work and said, 'Come home now.'"
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