How a tick bite left a healthy mom blind, paralyzed and "waiting to die"

Sitting on a lawn, while she was playing with her two-year-old daughter Christine Jennings, she did not know that her life was going to be torn apart.

The mother of four had taken her children to Bradgate Park in Leicester to keep them away from the paint fumes as she redecorated the family home.

This is a decision she has regretted every day since.

That night, while she was preparing to go to bed, Christine, then 32, was horrified to find an insect attached to the side of her torso at the ribcage.

Shouting at the sight of goose bumps – a deer tick – that had sunk into her skin, she managed to pull it off.

Three years later, she will learn that she has left the little creature's head inside.

In a few days, Christine, a talented interior painter and decorator, began to have pain all over her body, swollen migraines and knees.

She thought she had caught a virus and alleviated the headaches caused by the paint fumes.

Yet it was only the beginning of a heartbreaking litany of serious and irreversible afflictions for health, compounded by what she claims to shock the indifference of the NHS to it. With regard to his fate, which would deprive Christine of everything.

Today, at the age of 57, this once energetic and devoted mother is a prisoner in her own body – unable to move, blind, in bed and in a dark room.

She is in constant pain and agony because, according to her words, she lies "waiting to die".

Christine had been infected with Lyme disease, transmitted by the tick that bit her during her summer outing in 1994.

The rare bacterial infection is transmitted by the blacklegged tick that feeds on deer.

It can be treated more effectively if diagnosed early. However, Christine claims that NHS doctors have refused to diagnose her and she is now denied treatment that could improve her quality of life.

Remembering her full and accomplished life that suddenly turned into a free fall 25 years ago, she said, "I would have taken the kids out for a walk in the nature to get out of the house I was painting. I just got divorced and moved to a new house.

"After going a long way, I sat in the short grbad with my youngest while the others were playing with the dog.

"We were far from fallow deer, I wore walking boots, jeans and a denim blouse.

"When I got home, I continued to decorate and went to bed early in the night, when I discovered that this insect was attached to my ribcage.

"I realized it was a ticking when I could not take it off and after a little panic I finally managed to grab the body and tear it apart, which I discovered more Late was the worst thing to do because I had left the head in. "

Lyme disease rarely infects people if all the infected ticks are removed from the body within 36 hours.

In Christine's case, the head was discovered and surgically removed three years later.

Two weeks after being bitten, Christine had a rash on her arm and decided to go to the doctor.

She said, "From that moment on, my life has never recovered.

"I would never have been a victim of illness or headaches.

"The symptoms resembled a cold-free flu, a very severe migraine, head pain, neck pain and swollen knees.I was so sick that I could not get up from bed.

"When I had the rash on my arm a week after I fell with the other symptoms, I went to the doctor, who considered him a ringworm.

"I told him about the tick, but he said I did not have to worry, that you only had things like that in America." Lyme disease was therefore dismissed from the start.

Christine says that doctors continued to exclude Lyme disease because she was suffering from more health problems, including backache, knees and tinnitus.

She said, "Sometimes I was so still that I could not get up, climb the stairs or move. I felt so bad.

"After four years, I had to use a wheelchair if I wanted to go from A to B.

"Until then, I did not know about Lyme disease, but one day I was reading a magazine article about little-known diseases of the summer, and there was some information about it.

"The symptoms were the same as mine. The fact that he was transported by deer and that I had been in a deer park.

"Everything I had lived fit, but the doctors did not accept it, they just rejected any mention of Lyme disease."

Unable to get a diagnosis for treatment, Christine's health continued to deteriorate as the infection wreaked havoc on her body.

In 2000, her eyes began to touch each other and, knowing that Lyme disease could cause blindness, she began searching for experts who were researching or treating the disease in the hope of saving her from sight.

During this time, she managed to obtain six clinical diagnoses, outside the NHS, of Lyme disease.

After meeting with a specialist in Sunderland, she launched a three-year treatment program, in which she received a double combination of antibiotics through a Hickman line.

But she was devastated when she was told that she was already too sick to continue treatment.

The disease had been left too long and she had lost the opportunity to control it.

In 2004, Christine had developed a rare combination of four eye diseases.

According to her, when a "staggering" doctor from a specialized ophthalmic hospital examined him, he found only three other similar cases – and all resulted from Lyme disease.

Christine was referred to an American doctor who had worked with Lyme disease in the United States. "Without a doubt," she had the disease and suggested a treatment regimen involving neurologists and other professionals.

But Christine says, "Then he received a letter from a public health officer and he told me he would have been told to go in a different direction.

"Although this rare combination of eye diseases required specialized treatment, this care was denied.

"I believe that they were more afraid that I would complain against them than they recognized that it was Lyme's good that they did not fear for my life."

"But that has never been the case. I would have been happy to have the sight saved and to have received the medical care for which I had been fighting for years.

"I lost half of my life because of this disease. My mental and emotional ability to keep fighting is declining rapidly now.

"I can not cope with it and the feeling of hopelessness, knowing that there is no recognition at any level, is very painful."

Christine says she has considered ending her life – but can not do it for her children and grandchildren.

She said, "Right now, I exist. I feel like I'm lying here waiting to die.

"I'm bedridden, I can not move without help, I need care day and night, I've had seven mini-stroke, three brain bleeds, I've got arthritis, muscle wasting, intestines problems, I do not need my left side and I need help to eat, drink, take a shower and get dressed.

"I lost all independence and I am now totally blind.

"The iris of one of my eyes has split and blood vessels are exposed and grow to extend to the surface of the eye.

"So, even if I'm blind, I have to stay in the dark because the slightest light affects all the nerves in my eye and increases the pain in my brain."

"Some days, I do not manage at all. Other days, I want to end it, but I could not commit suicide because I have four children and grandchildren and I could not do the same to them.

"Two of my daughters take care of me and without them, I would not spend the day and night.

"I will never be healed now, it's too late. I will never find the sight again. Much of what is wrong with me is damaged and can not be corrected.

"But I could be supported and my quality of life could be improved. That's all I ask.

A spokesman for Leicester Hospitals said, "We are sorry to hear that Christine is unhappy with her care.

"Christine was invited to meetings this year, but did not attend.

"We have not yet received a formal complaint regarding her current concerns, so we encourage her to contact our Patient Liaison and Information Service, and we will be happy to search for her." . "