At 3 a.m., Imeria Price and Jordan Washington got
up to take their 8-year-old son to the emergency room. Jakobe had fallen ill earlier that day at a baseball tournament in Georgia, so they returned home to Punta Gorda.
At first, his symptoms resembled a typical infection. Sore throat. Swollen lymph nodes. Fatigue. Then came the blood-red spots on his mouth.
From
the hospital, a helicopter
flew Jakobe to Johns Hopkins All Childrenâs Hospital in St. Petersburg, a 25-minute ride. His parents trailed behind, a 2-hour car journey ahead of them, unsure what would come next.
A doctor called them about