Emilee Russell a 6-year-old girl died at a Louisiana hospital Wednesday after a little more than two-week battle with what doctors suspect to have been Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a rarely seen tick-borne disease.
Authorities say the little girl was visiting family in Texas earlier this month when she suddenly became severely ill. It was only days after her parents say she was bitten by a tick on Memorial Day.
Three different hospitals were unable to positively identity her condition, with each one finding themselves just as baffled as the next.
Doctors believe the girl died from Rocky Mountain spotted fever which is transmitted by ticks and most commonly found in the southeastern states.
Emilee was placed on a ventilator and blood dialysis as tests vigorously went under way.
North Carolina is the state where the disease is most commonly seen in the southeast.
The Russell family (from left): twin brother Charlie Jr., mom Beth, dad Charlie Sr. and Emilee.
The disease's trademark symptom of a rash of small red dots — first developing around the wrists, ankles, palms and soles — can begin anytime up to 10 days after fever sets in.
Other symptoms include headache, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, muscle pain, lack of appetite and red eyes from conjunctival injection.
Paul E Tessier/Getty Images
Emilee’s family went to three different hospitals but were unable to positively identity her condition which is suspected as linked to a tick bite on Memorial Day.
On Wednesday after regularly delivering the public hopeful progress reports on the 6-year-old's condition, the Black Mountain fire department announced the tragic news.
"It is with the deepest sorrow that we have learned of the passing of Emilee Russell, the daughter of Battalion Chief Charlie Russell and his wife Beth. Please keep the entire family in your thoughts and prayers," the Black Mountain Fire Department posted to their Facebook wall.
"Little Emilee was just a happy little girl. Always had a smile on her face," Jones recalled. "She'd come to see her dad at work and she'd run up and down the hallways, out there in the bays, around the trucks. She was just a little 6-year-old girl, full of life."
Emilee leaves behind a twin brother named Charlie who attended their kindergarten graduation alone after the beginning of his sister's illness. At the time she was said to have been suffering from strep throat.
"She loved riding the bus, and she and her brother both would get off the bus every morning, just as happy to be here," Black Mountain Primary School principal Malorie McGinnis told the Citizen Times. "It's a loss. Teachers are grieving. Children are grieving, administration is grieving."
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