Saturday, July 21, 2007 12:06 AM CDT
Area toddler faces medical struggles due to high levels of lead in her body
By BONNIE CLARK, Features Writer
bclark@jg-tc.com
There was nothing to warn of the dangerously high levels of lead in Amanda Taylor’s 2-year-old body.
No symptoms to forecast that life in the Taylor family was about to change drastically that morning in August 2006 when Sarah Taylor took her four children to the Coles County Health Department for baby Jonas’ scheduled immunizations.
Because of Amanda’s age, secretary Janie Landrus suggested while they were there they go ahead and do a finger stick blood test for lead.
It would save Amanda’s life.
“A lead count of over 10 is considered poisoning,” Taylor said. “Anything over 70 is considered life-threatening.
“Amanda’s level was 136, higher than any of the experts have seen where the child has not died.”
Jason and Sarah Taylor’s doctor told them to take Amanda to St. John’s Hospital in Springfield immediately.
There, an X-ray even showed paint chips in Amanda’s intestines, Taylor said.
“Initially, they admitted her to ICU, but because she looked so good and was so active, they moved her to an intermediate care unit, where she spent six days.”
Taylor said her daughter received shots in her thighs every four hours around the clock for six days.
“The medicine they injected is very thick, so it wasn’t like when you get a shot that’s over in a second,” she said. “They actually had to put the needle in and plunge it and it took a bit, and it hurt.
“The first time, it only took one nurse and me to do it. By about the third time, it took four of us to hold her down with all our might. It was rough on everyone to have to do it.”
The treatment, called chelation therapy, binds the lead with the medicine so that it can be excreted in the urine.
Meanwhile, representatives of the Illinois Department of Public Health Environmental Section inspected the family’s rental home southeast of Charleston.
They found lead paint on the front porch, where Amanda’s parents had placed a gate thinking she would have a place to play safely while her older brother and sister played outside. There also was lead paint on the soffit and a bench outside, and basically on all outside painted surfaces.
What was happening, according to Diana Stenger, communicable disease investigator with the Coles County Public Health Department, was that the family was tracking the dust and lead in and out.
“The only lead found on the inside of the house was found in the carpeting where they had tracked it in,” she said.
The landlord was informed of the problem, Taylor said, “but instead of getting rid of the lead paint, his solution was to evict us. He gave us 30 days to find somewhere else to live.”
The family found another home, a spacious two-story country home with a garden, and most importantly, no lead paint.
According to health department literature, national surveys estimate that more than three million children age 6 and younger have lead poisoning. The number represents almost one out of every six children under age 7.
In 2005, 8,123 children in Illinois were found to have lead poisoning.
The main source of lead, according to Stenger, is paint found on houses built before 1978. It’s found on both interior and exterior walls. Lead paint is found on playground equipment, farm machinery and toys.
“Even mini blinds,” Stenger said. “It’s often found on imported toys, and some imported crayons; trinkets and jewelry found in bubble gum machines; in lead-glazed pottery; some cosmetics; soil around painted buildings; and lead water pipes. People with certain hobbies, such as stained glass and target shooting, are also exposed to lead.”
Of the four Taylor children, only Amanda has the high lead level, most likely because she was at an age when she was crawling and putting everything in her mouth. Jonas, 1, was just starting to crawl. His lead level is under 10, Stenger said, “but we’re keeping an eye on him.” James, now 8, and Ashley, 7, don’t have a problem.
“Children are especially vulnerable to harmful effects of lead because their brains and nervous systems are still being formed,” Stenger said.
For very young children, even low levels of exposure can result in attention deficit disorders, learning disabilities, lower IQ, behavioral problems, hearing problems and kidney damage.
“With Amanda, it’s just one of those things where we wait and see,” her mother said. “No one knows what to expect because they haven’t ever seen a child with lead levels this high where it has been caught so early.
“We won’t know a lot of it until she’s actually in school, but some things we’re noticing now.
Taylor said Amanda’s lead level is now down to 25 and she is being tested every three months.
“Chelation will only take the lead out of your blood, but it’s stored in the bones and in the tissues,” she said.
Taylor works with a nutritionist to make sure Amanda gets the iron and calcium she needs. Iron is needed because it binds along with lead during chelation and is excreted from the body.
“And anemia is a big side effect of lead poisoning,” Taylor said. “You need to keep iron and calcium stored in the bones instead of lead.
Amanda’s family is hoping that time is on her side — that the possibility that the high level of lead was in her system for only a relatively brief time will somehow lessen some of the long-term effects.
“We’re already seeing some aggression, she’s very clingy, and throwing huge tantrums,” Taylor said. “At first, I thought part of it was from being in the hospital and having the treatment be so rough and so traumatic, but part of it, they think, is from her lead levels being so high.
“Amanda is also having trouble sleeping at night. On a good night she’s up three times a night and on a bad night, it’s four or five times.
Sarah, who has a four-year college degree in pre-veterinary medicine, is for now a stay-at-home mom to her four children.
“I’ve seen two other children through their terrible twos,” Taylor said, “and it was never like this.
“It finally got to the point I called Child and Family Connections and said ‘You need to come to my house and tell me what I’m doing because I must be doing something wrong.’
Representatives with the group visited the home and found that Amanda has some delays socially and behaviorally, so the Taylors then went to see a childhood behavioral specialist.
“He has also worked with lead poisoning cases, and he believes all the problems we’re seeing are due to lead poisoning.”
Now that Amanda is turning 3, she will be too old for some of the programs she has been involved in and her parents are seeking other programs for which she qualifies.
“It’s going to be a lifelong struggle for her to do the things everyone else takes for granted,” her mother said. “Some things have improved, but I don’t think a lot of the problems have surfaced yet, because she hasn’t been forced to sit in a school setting yet and try to concentrate.
“Right now, something as small as a trip to the grocery store is almost impossible with her. The lights will send her into tantrums and the sounds bother her.
“And the looks you get from other people, like, ‘Why don’t you get your child under control?’
“When people ask ‘How do you do it?’ I tell them, no one ever told me I had the option not to do it. We just kind of take it day by day.”
Contact Bonnie Clark at bclark@jg-tc.com or 348-5727.
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shelly kay wrote on Jul 23, 2007 11:08 AM: