On the day Sienna turned two, in October 2015, she ended up in a hospital bed with an IV in her arm. She had stopped eating.
It all started with some mouth ulcers that, according to her mother, appeared out of nowhere. Before long, they had spread across her cheeks and above her eyes until, in the words of 21-year-old Savina French-Bell, it looked as if someone had thrown acid in her face. Doctors diagnosed herpes, a virus that, according to the family’s account, the little girl may have caught from kissing a relative.
The nights were the worst. Her skin stuck to the pillows, and there was always blood. Savina washed the sheets every day, threw away stained clothes, and tried to stop the little girl from scratching, although Sienna would seek out any sofa to rub her face against. Eight months of antibiotics failed to stop the infection. The doctors, she says, had no idea what had caused it, and the little girl’s severe eczema made things even more difficult.
She improved when she was prescribed flucloxacillin to treat the eczema. Since then, the infection has not returned. Today, Savina can go outside without hearing hurtful comments, and those who used to treat her daughter badly are now amazed when they see how her face healed.