A relaxing holiday in the sunshine became a terrifying ordeal for a WA family after their 18-month old daughter Amarli nearly lost her life to flesh-eating bacteria that attacked her lungs.
Bunbury couple Sharna and Brendan Marshall and their daughters Kensi, four, and Amarli, left on June 26 for a 10-day holiday in Thailand.
But they are yet to return home, with Amarli having spent more than a month in a Bankgok Hospital after having part of her lung removed in emergency surgery.
The family was holidaying in Khao Lak, two hours from Phuket, when Amarli got what they thought was a cold, Mrs Marshall said.
A doctor checked her in the hotel and said she was okay, but the family was worried enough to take her to Phuket hospital on July 3, where the medical team performed a series of tests and diagnosed pneumonia.
"Then on Monday morning everything sort of turned fairly dramatic," Mrs Marshall said.
"They said there was a lot more going on than just pneumonia, they were concerned and said they were going to fly us to Bangkok hospital as they had a better team of doctors, were more qualified, and had better facilities to handle her case."
"At that point they couldn't really tell us what was wrong, only that she had very low red blood cells, very low white blood cells, and a very low platelet count, so her blood wasn't clotting the doctors were really concerned."
They were flown to Bangkok on July 5, with Amarli in a critical condition.
"They couldn't figure out what was going on, and what was happening to her, they had not seen anything like it before," she said.
"She had a team of doctors working on her; a lung doctor, a kidney doctor, a surgeon, a blood doctor, and an infectious disease specialist, so she had a team of people trying to determine what was wrong."
It turned out to be streptococcus necrotising pneumonia, and Amarli's lower left lung had to be removed in an emergency lobectomy.
Amarli was also battling Haemolytic Rhymonic Syndrome, an immune reaction that causes low red blood cells, and acute renal failure.
Amarli was discharged from hospital after spending 34 days there, and is now staying in a hotel with her family, who have now been away for six weeks and can't fly home until she is stronger.
Mrs Marshall said Amarli was back to her normal cheeky self, a part from a couple of scars, and was re-learning to how to walk after becoming so dangerously weak and ill.
"The doctors have been amazed at how sick she was, and they were really concerned that we would lose her, and then on the other side of that how quickly she has recovered," Mrs Marshall said.
"Her lungs are functioning really well for someone who is missing part of a lung, they said there is not going to be any long-term impacts."
It was unknown how Amarli had picked up the airborne bacteria.
Mrs Marshall said despite the language barrier, the Thai doctors and nurses had been "magnificent" and family and friends had been generous and supportive, setting up an online fundraiser to help the family, whose insurance covered their medical bills but not their unexpected loss of income.