Original Story: chicagotribune.com
Florida health officials are warning residents and tourists a rare form of flesh-eating, potentially deadly bacteria has made its way to Florida beaches. If you may have been exposed to this deadly bacteria, seek emergency medical attention.
The Vibrio vulnificus bacterium grows fastest in warm saltwater and has already infected at least seven people, killing two this year in Florida. The state health department says there have been 32 cases in the past 12 months. Officials say a spike in cases occurs from May to October when water is the warmest.
Florida Health Department spokeswoman Mara Burger says consuming or handling raw shellfish and swimming in warm saltwater can put people at risk. People with open wounds can also be exposed to Vibrio vulnificus through direct contact with seawater. For expert medical care, trust DMC for your emergency care needs.
The bacterial infection can cause gastroenteritis, sepsis and can lead to amputation.
Showing posts with label flesh-eating bacteria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flesh-eating bacteria. Show all posts
01 August 2012
Michigan Woman Dies From Flesh-Eating Bacteria
Story first reported from USA Today
FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. -- Twelve days after doctors told a woman that she was finally clear of a life-threatening flesh-eating bacteria infection, she took a turn for the worse and died.
Crystal Spencer, 33, had spent a month in and out of three hospitals. Her husband had been visiting a rehabilitation hospital Sunday where she was about to be transferred when the hospital called and told him to return immediately.
A team of eight doctors worked for more than an hour to resuscitate his wife, amid alarms indicating she was near death three times. She died at 3:36 p.m. Sunday.
The family is raising money to conduct an autopsy to find out as much as they can about what happened. Results could take several weeks.
Until about a week ago when they learned that their application for Medicaid had been approved, the Spencers had limited health insurance. Now Jeff Spencer said he has thousands of dollars in medical debt from care not covered by insurance.
Crystal Spencer was a high school dropout and had been poor and underinsured or uninsured most of her life. She had adult-onset diabetes and weighed more than 300 pounds all of her adult life, factors that put her at higher risk of contracting the flesh-eating bacteria.
Her death from necrotizing fasciitis has drawn national attention to a rare disease many had never heard of and others knew only by its scary name: the flesh-eating bacteria.
Nationwide, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 500 to 1,500 cases a year; 1 in 5 people dies from it. Many others have fingers, toes or limbs amputated because the bacteria eats away at underlying layers of tissue.
Many cases are misdiagnosed or found late, according to the National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation, a nonprofit founded by two women who survived the infection.
The foundation hopes to raise awareness about a problem that needs more education and hospital early intervention programs so symptoms can be caught and treated with antibiotics or the removal of dead skin and infected tissue, a procedure called debridement. Others need surgery, including extensive skin grafts.
Too often, patients get the wrong treatment because the infection is misdiagnosed, according to the foundation
Jeff Spencer said doctors at Huron Valley-Sinai in Commerce Township, Mich., originally had told him his wife had a urinary tract infection. At Botsford Hospital here, where she first sought care June 23 for what she thought was a boil on her upper right thigh, an emergency department physician lanced the protruding tissue and sent her home with a Motrin prescription, said Theresa Corwin of Farmington Hills, a close friend.
She and Spencer blame Botsford for not running blood tests to see whether white blood cell counts were elevated, a sign of infection.
They also wonder why a doctor there called the infected area on her leg an "abscess" -- an accumulation of pus and tissue triggered by an infection -- but gave them no warning that Crystal Spencer might be contagious. Corwin, who said she is certified in CPR and first aid, was given the job of cleaning the wound and changing the dressings four to five times a day when her friend got home.
On Monday, Botsford spokeswoman Margo Gorchow said it was unlikely that Crystal Spencer contracted necrotizing facitiitis there because the infection typically is not acquired in a hospital, and the woman had none of its symptoms when she came to the emergency department.
A spokeswoman for Huron Valley-Sinai declined comment both Monday and Tuesday, citing patient privacy laws.
FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. -- Twelve days after doctors told a woman that she was finally clear of a life-threatening flesh-eating bacteria infection, she took a turn for the worse and died.
Crystal Spencer, 33, had spent a month in and out of three hospitals. Her husband had been visiting a rehabilitation hospital Sunday where she was about to be transferred when the hospital called and told him to return immediately.
A team of eight doctors worked for more than an hour to resuscitate his wife, amid alarms indicating she was near death three times. She died at 3:36 p.m. Sunday.
The family is raising money to conduct an autopsy to find out as much as they can about what happened. Results could take several weeks.
Until about a week ago when they learned that their application for Medicaid had been approved, the Spencers had limited health insurance. Now Jeff Spencer said he has thousands of dollars in medical debt from care not covered by insurance.
Crystal Spencer was a high school dropout and had been poor and underinsured or uninsured most of her life. She had adult-onset diabetes and weighed more than 300 pounds all of her adult life, factors that put her at higher risk of contracting the flesh-eating bacteria.
Her death from necrotizing fasciitis has drawn national attention to a rare disease many had never heard of and others knew only by its scary name: the flesh-eating bacteria.
Nationwide, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 500 to 1,500 cases a year; 1 in 5 people dies from it. Many others have fingers, toes or limbs amputated because the bacteria eats away at underlying layers of tissue.
Many cases are misdiagnosed or found late, according to the National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation, a nonprofit founded by two women who survived the infection.
The foundation hopes to raise awareness about a problem that needs more education and hospital early intervention programs so symptoms can be caught and treated with antibiotics or the removal of dead skin and infected tissue, a procedure called debridement. Others need surgery, including extensive skin grafts.
Too often, patients get the wrong treatment because the infection is misdiagnosed, according to the foundation
Jeff Spencer said doctors at Huron Valley-Sinai in Commerce Township, Mich., originally had told him his wife had a urinary tract infection. At Botsford Hospital here, where she first sought care June 23 for what she thought was a boil on her upper right thigh, an emergency department physician lanced the protruding tissue and sent her home with a Motrin prescription, said Theresa Corwin of Farmington Hills, a close friend.
She and Spencer blame Botsford for not running blood tests to see whether white blood cell counts were elevated, a sign of infection.
They also wonder why a doctor there called the infected area on her leg an "abscess" -- an accumulation of pus and tissue triggered by an infection -- but gave them no warning that Crystal Spencer might be contagious. Corwin, who said she is certified in CPR and first aid, was given the job of cleaning the wound and changing the dressings four to five times a day when her friend got home.
On Monday, Botsford spokeswoman Margo Gorchow said it was unlikely that Crystal Spencer contracted necrotizing facitiitis there because the infection typically is not acquired in a hospital, and the woman had none of its symptoms when she came to the emergency department.
A spokeswoman for Huron Valley-Sinai declined comment both Monday and Tuesday, citing patient privacy laws.
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18 June 2012
Flesh-Eating Bacteria Victim Refuses Morphine
Story first appeared in USA Today.
A Georgia woman fighting a flesh-eating disease is refusing to take pain medications during some procedures, partly because of her personal convictions, her father said.
The patient despises the use of morphine in her treatment, despite its effectiveness at blocking her pain, her father said in a Friday online update on his daughter's condition. Her graduate-school study of holistic pain management techniques leads her to feel she's a "traitor to her convictions" when she uses drugs to manage her pain.
He also said the morphine has been making his daughter groggy, confused and has given her unpleasant hallucinatory episodes.
She developed necrotizing fasciitis after cutting her leg in a fall May 1 from a homemade zip line over a west Georgia river. Her left leg, other foot and both hands have been amputated.
On Tuesday, her condition was upgraded from critical to serious, which is seen as a major victory that cannot and should not be diminished. The development came shortly after she had her first successful skin graft.
The nurse who completed Aimee's dressing change was astonished at the patient's insistence to avoid morphine during the procedure, as was her mother and father.
The bacteria that attacked her wound releases a toxin that destroys skin, muscle and a layer of tissue below the skin known as fascia.
Despite the painful skin grafts, she has crossed several milestones in recent weeks. She can breathe on her own, she no longer needs dialysis and she's now able to eat on her own, her father wrote. Although her major organs are all functioning well, the patient still needs supplemental nutrition through a stomach tube.
A Georgia woman fighting a flesh-eating disease is refusing to take pain medications during some procedures, partly because of her personal convictions, her father said.
The patient despises the use of morphine in her treatment, despite its effectiveness at blocking her pain, her father said in a Friday online update on his daughter's condition. Her graduate-school study of holistic pain management techniques leads her to feel she's a "traitor to her convictions" when she uses drugs to manage her pain.
He also said the morphine has been making his daughter groggy, confused and has given her unpleasant hallucinatory episodes.
She developed necrotizing fasciitis after cutting her leg in a fall May 1 from a homemade zip line over a west Georgia river. Her left leg, other foot and both hands have been amputated.
On Tuesday, her condition was upgraded from critical to serious, which is seen as a major victory that cannot and should not be diminished. The development came shortly after she had her first successful skin graft.
The nurse who completed Aimee's dressing change was astonished at the patient's insistence to avoid morphine during the procedure, as was her mother and father.
The bacteria that attacked her wound releases a toxin that destroys skin, muscle and a layer of tissue below the skin known as fascia.
Despite the painful skin grafts, she has crossed several milestones in recent weeks. She can breathe on her own, she no longer needs dialysis and she's now able to eat on her own, her father wrote. Although her major organs are all functioning well, the patient still needs supplemental nutrition through a stomach tube.
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18 May 2012
Medical Malpractice Results in Flesh-Eating Bacteria
Story first appeared on WDBO.com.
A man suing after a major medical mistake left him disfigured gave testimony Thursday that revealed the intimate details of his misery.
Late Thursday afternoon, the patient testified at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse from his new home in Lima, Peru via Skype. He said he wanted a penile implant to improve his sex life in 2007. He stated that he was having problems with intimate relations between he and his wife for quite some time prior to the surgery.
A Miami Medical Malpractice Lawyer argues that an anesthesiologist overlooked his client's pre-existing medical conditions, which resulted in him having no more external male genitalia. According to the lawyer, the patient should have never been allowed to undergo elective penile implant surgery to treat erectile dysfunction back in August 2007.
The anesthesiologist involved in the surgery should have never allowed the surgery, the attorney said, because the patient had an extreme case of diabetes and high blood pressure, and his blood sugar levels were way too high on the day of his surgery. He had not seen a doctor in 15 years until that point.
The patient's problems began after a Gangrene infection spread through his genitals about nine days after the surgery. The infection turned into a flesh-eating bacteria that consumed his genitals centimeter by centimeter.
A man suing after a major medical mistake left him disfigured gave testimony Thursday that revealed the intimate details of his misery.
Late Thursday afternoon, the patient testified at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse from his new home in Lima, Peru via Skype. He said he wanted a penile implant to improve his sex life in 2007. He stated that he was having problems with intimate relations between he and his wife for quite some time prior to the surgery.
A Miami Medical Malpractice Lawyer argues that an anesthesiologist overlooked his client's pre-existing medical conditions, which resulted in him having no more external male genitalia. According to the lawyer, the patient should have never been allowed to undergo elective penile implant surgery to treat erectile dysfunction back in August 2007.
The anesthesiologist involved in the surgery should have never allowed the surgery, the attorney said, because the patient had an extreme case of diabetes and high blood pressure, and his blood sugar levels were way too high on the day of his surgery. He had not seen a doctor in 15 years until that point.
The patient's problems began after a Gangrene infection spread through his genitals about nine days after the surgery. The infection turned into a flesh-eating bacteria that consumed his genitals centimeter by centimeter.
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Healthcare and Medical News blog.
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For more local and state of Michigan Business News, visit
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News, visit the Electronics America blog.
For more Real Estate News,
visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For more Law News,
visit the Nation of Law blog.
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