Boy Dies Rash - Investigators in southern California want to know what killed a 7-year-old boy who died suddenly on vacation last week after developing a mysterious rash on his armpit.
Tevita Alatini, of Houston was with his parents at Camp Pendleton's Lake O'Neill Recreational Park near San Diego on July 9 when he got sick.
"He was happy and climbing light poles and running around and having a good time just like any other 7-year-old would," Helen Niko, one of Tevita's aunts, told San Diego's 10News.com.
The boy started vomiting and developed a small red splotch under his left arm, which quickly grew in size, family members said.
"He was complaining about a pain on his side, and it started off just like a little rash, and then it just became bigger," Sione Niko, an uncle, told San Diego's KFMB-TV.
Family member rushed the boy to a local emergency room, where doctors had him flown to Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego.
He died there the next day.
The San Diego County Medical Examiner's office said in a statement that the boy had a "severe infection," but said the cause of death was "pending" further tests, "such as microscopic or toxicological examination."
Final results could take 90 days, the office said.
Family members told local media outlets that they feared the boy may have contracted flesh-eating bacteria.
Infections by flesh-eating bacteria can quickly devour tissue and muscle after first entering the body through small scratches or cuts.
Some bacteria that cause the deadly infections lurk in the brackish waters of lakes or ponds.
There were conflicting reports about whether the boy went swimming.
Family members told KFMB-TV that the boy got sick after swimming in the lake, but Sione Niko, the uncle, told the North County Times newspaper that the boy didn't go near the water.
Hours after he died, the little boy's grieving relatives honored him with a gathering at Camp Pendleton’s beach.
"It was so hard for us as a family to go to the beach on Tuesday to watch all the other kids as they're coming in and out of the water and thinking, 'This was right up his alley,'" Niko told 10News.com.
"This is where he wanted to be."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/boy-7-contracts-mystery-rash-dies-day-vacation-san-diego-article-1.1116948#ixzz21QZEFDB4
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