A two-year-old Georgia boy is fighting for his life after he accidentally drove his electric toy vehicle last month into a nest of yellow jackets that stung him more than 150 times.
The parents of Beckham Reed, according to his GoFundMe page, first took him to a southeast Georgia emergency room where the boy was given Benadryl for the bites and morphine for the pain and sent him home.
The page then reports:
Less than 24 hours later, his parents were rushing him to another ER due to him turning yellow. Shoutout to Southeast Georgia Health System in Brunswick who recognized he was in multi-organ failure (heart, liver, and kidney — he was born with only one working kidney) and transferred him immediately to ICU at Memorial Savannah.
The fund raiser continued, “Memorial Savannah also acted quickly, they started him on dialysis, ventilator support and life-saving IV medications to allow his body to rest and filter out the toxins.”
Tiffany Hewatt, who launched the fundraiser, wrote: “We pray for his mother Mariah who is pregnant with their second child and due in August. We pray for his father Peyton, who grabbed his baby and rushed him to safety while getting stung also. We ask God for healing and patience as the physicians say this will be a slow process.”
An update posted on Tuesday reported Beckham had fluid around his lungs, his kidney was still not fully functioning, and he was going to undergo more dialysis.
Savanah’s ABC affiliate Channel 13 reported that his family has left their jobs to remain constantly at the boy’s bedside, and they have been able to hear his voice and “see him smile.”
As of this weekend, the GoFundMe page has raised nearly $100,000 toward covering lost wages and mounting medical costs for treatment.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more
