Toddler Loses Limbs To Rare Bacterial Illness, Suffered From Purpura, Septic Shock

A toddler was forced to have the lower half of all four of his limbs amputated after contracting a mystery infection. The 2-year-old boy's family from Indiana is trying to cope with the new reality.

Ashley Cox, the mother of the child, said she took her son Jeremiah and his siblings to the park in late September. Jeremiah had a fever the next day following which he was admitted to the Riley Children’s Hospital, Fox 59 reported.

The young boy's condition deteriorated as he started having purple spots all over his body. Doctors diagnosed him with septic shock and the condition purpura, which they believe came about from an unknown bacterial infection.

Purpura occurs when small blood vessels burst, causing blood to pool beneath the skin and appear as purple-colored spots. Purpura spots are generally benign, but may indicate a more serious medical condition.

Jeremiah was treated with antibiotics, which managed to kill the infection, but the blood supply to his limbs had already shut down. As the infection had already spread, to save his life, doctors were forced to amputate his limbs below the knees and elbows.

It has been a month as Jeremiah remained in the hospital as he tried to learn how to crawl and even eat after his limbs were amputated.

"Just to watch your child lay there and watch everything die, and then basically watching your son die in front of you - it's crazy," the child's mother said.

His father Nicholas Thompson, 21, told AOL: "It's kind of like blood vessels that’s ruptured really in the body."

The boy’s family, who welcomed their youngest child while Jeremiah was fighting for his life, said it was unclear when he would be released from the hospital.

“One day my son could be the top designer of prosthetic legs and arms because he went through this,” Thompson told Fox 59. “He can do anything in his lifetime. This might stop him now, but I think the future can be bright for him.”

A GoFundMe page was set up for the family to help make ends meet amid the crisis.

"The doctors have moved him to the burn unit to heal his skin in the best way possible. Once doctors feel he is ready to leave the Burn Unit, they will start his rehabilitation and he will have to start all over and learn to crawl, eat, maybe walk with prosthetics (one day), and live as happy and well as any other normal toddler," the description on the page read.