Indiana Preschooler Loses His Leg to Flesh-Eating Bacteria Family Thought Was the Flu

Bryson Crenshaw

As parents, we try to cover all the bases, especially when our kids are sick. After her family got over the flu, Megan Crenshaw’s 4-year-old son was still feeling under the weather and his muscles — specifically his leg — hurt. She gave him some Tylenol and rubbed his sore leg. When his leg pain didn’t show any improvement, there was only one thing to do.

“That evening, my husband and I decided to take him into the hospital, and he wanted me to carry him,” Crenshaw, 35, told Today. At the hospital, little Bryson would be diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, also known as flesh-eating bacteria.

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, flesh-eating bacteria is “a rare bacterial infection that spreads quickly in the body and can cause death.” It can enter the body through cuts and scrapes, burns, insect bites, puncture wounds, surgical wounds, and blunt trauma. Necrotizing fasciitis is rarely contagious.

'I didn't see anything,' his mom says.

Megan Crenshaw shared that at the emergency room, her son wasn’t putting weight on his leg. When the doctor asked the little boy if his leg hurt, Bryson shared that it was specifically his knee that was painful.

His mother informed the doctor that the whole family had recently had the flu and they assumed he had it as well. “He has been complaining a little bit about his leg being sore, but I didn’t see anything. He hasn’t fallen recently or anything.”

The infection moved quickly.

Bryson’s knee was swollen, but his parents figured the injury was from typical kid behavior such as jumping off the couch or skipping down the stairs. An X-ray would indicate it was nothing typical.

The doctor went over the films with the family, showing them the darkness on the X-ray and gave the diagnosis of necrotizing fasciitis. He told the family it was a “a very fast progressing infection of the soft tissue. It can be fatal.”

Bryson was moved to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, where he received an in-depth scan to locate the infected tissue. Then the 4-year-old went into surgery to have the infected tissue cleaned out, but according to Today, a second scan revealed that the infection had progressed toward his hip, up his abdomen, with necrotizing tissue found in his small intestine, colon, and appendix, which was removed.

His leg couldn't be completely saved.

After countless surgeries, it wasn’t possible to save Bryson’s entire leg, Dr. Christine Caltoum told Today. As the medical director of surgical operations and division chief of pediatric orthopedic surgery at Riley Children’s Health, Caltoum was a part of Bryson's care team.

“There was a lot of non-viable tissue within the leg. So, a lot of dead muscle, a lot of dead areas that were just not going to be salvageable,” she said.

The amputation set Bryson on the path to recovery.

In mid-January, Bryson received a nontraditional above-the-knee amputation, in which the dead tissue and bone was removed and the healthy tissue and bone was used to reconstruct the leg. He excelled at in-patient rehabilitation and was released early.

Currently this independent preschooler gets around using a walker, a wheelchair, and by scooting on the floor. He’s happy to share his survival story. When a child at church asked what happened to his leg, “Bryson was like, ‘Oh I got an infection, and (my leg) made me sick. So, the doctor cut it off,’” his mom said.

His mother has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help raise money for Bryson's medical expenses and modifications to the family's home to meet Bryson's needs.