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Reminder to be careful of hand cuts
#1
Mine were white, not black...and not flesh eating. But the rest of the scenario was the same. 36 hour of IV antibiotics and then by mouth for a month.  Be careful!




     

Learn the signs and treatment of the rare disease "necrotizing fasciitis."
USA TODAY
A Florida man said he is lucky to be alive after a minor prick from a fishing hook led to a life-threatening, flesh-eating bacterial infection.


Fisherman Mike Walton caught his hand in a fishing hook in the Gulf of Mexico days ago, and didn't think much of it, he told Tampa Bay's WFTS. It's an injury he said he's had hundreds of times while fishing.

But, his hand began to swell — with large black blisters. Usual antibiotics weren't working. So, Walton drove himself to an emergency room, where doctors told him he needed surgery or he might lose his arm or worse.

“They said in a few hours, this would have gone up my arm into my chest and I wouldn’t have been here. There was no saving me,” Walton told Florida's FOX 13.


Doctors considered amputating his arm, but were able to remove the bacteria from skin tissue between his elbow and the palm of his hand, he said.

More: Woman dies from brain-eating amoeba after using neti pot with filtered tap water

More: Man died 'horror-movie' death from flesh-eating bacteria

More: Woman dies from 'flesh-eating' bacteria after eating oysters

"I got real lucky on this one," he told WFTS.

The flesh-eating infection, necrotizing fasciitis, is rare and can be deadly. Bacteria that causes it can enter the body through even small breaks in the skin and spreads quickly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.



Walton, who works in construction, said this injury won't stop him from fishing in the future.

"I want to go right now," he said. "It ain't going to slow me down. It's one thing I enjoy."

Doctors told Walton the infection is contained, he said, but he'll likely need to be on antibiotics for another month, and require additional weeks to heal.
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#2
You are so strong and so brave and that was a god forsaken thing u went through.

what a horrific disease to be getting stronger.

horrifying. *glad u made it through*
Angel  It is Well with My Soul  Angel
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#3
Gosh Audrey, what an awful thing you've been through. I'm so glad you are alright from such a terrible thing.

You've got so much courage to get through something like this.

Thank you so much for reminding us that something that is pretty common can have such a bad outcome.....
This too shall pass. Heart
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#4
And I get cuts on my hands all the time sometimes don't even know what I did.....hope it stays rare . 

Glad your okay Audrey  Smile
 How People Treat You is Their Karma, How You React is Yours
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#5
Oh my word...

Never really thought much of simple hand cuts.........those are some bad bugs out there.

Thanks for the info Audrey and keep well..


Folken
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#6
(04-26-2019, 08:03 PM)Audrey Hepburn Wrote: Mine were white, not black...and not flesh eating. But the rest of the scenario was the same. 36 hour of IV antibiotics and then by mouth for a month.  Be careful!




     

Learn the signs and treatment of the rare disease "necrotizing fasciitis."
USA TODAY
A Florida man said he is lucky to be alive after a minor prick from a fishing hook led to a life-threatening, flesh-eating bacterial infection.


Fisherman Mike Walton caught his hand in a fishing hook in the Gulf of Mexico days ago, and didn't think much of it, he told Tampa Bay's WFTS. It's an injury he said he's had hundreds of times while fishing.

But, his hand began to swell — with large black blisters. Usual antibiotics weren't working. So, Walton drove himself to an emergency room, where doctors told him he needed surgery or he might lose his arm or worse.

“They said in a few hours, this would have gone up my arm into my chest and I wouldn’t have been here. There was no saving me,” Walton told Florida's FOX 13.


Doctors considered amputating his arm, but were able to remove the bacteria from skin tissue between his elbow and the palm of his hand, he said.

More: Woman dies from brain-eating amoeba after using neti pot with filtered tap water

More: Man died 'horror-movie' death from flesh-eating bacteria

More: Woman dies from 'flesh-eating' bacteria after eating oysters

"I got real lucky on this one," he told WFTS.

The flesh-eating infection, necrotizing fasciitis, is rare and can be deadly. Bacteria that causes it can enter the body through even small breaks in the skin and spreads quickly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.



Walton, who works in construction, said this injury won't stop him from fishing in the future.

"I want to go right now," he said. "It ain't going to slow me down. It's one thing I enjoy."

Doctors told Walton the infection is contained, he said, but he'll likely need to be on antibiotics for another month, and require additional weeks to heal.
I had no idea that a simple cut or puncture could introduce enough bacteria to cause such horrible infections. Going to be more careful with hand cuts. 
And, i never, ever eat oysters anymore. Had a few raw ones a few years ago and thought I was dying - don't want to get into the gory details, but I literally could not move for hours. Thanks for the info, especially with summer coming.
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#7
Well, I certainly wasn't fishing. Lol, I was loading my dishwasher and reached in without looking and grabbed a dirty knife. It wasn't a bad cut at all, no bleeding, etc. I never thought a simple cut could cause something like this. I cleaned it with alcohol or peroxide (can't remember which, and put a bandaid on it. When I woke up in the morning it was swollen and blistering. The blisters were like bubble wrap--I could press on them and hear popping. I actually went to a CVS Minute Clinic and they freaked and told me I had to go to the ER. I thought they were full of sh*t, and thank goodness did within the hour. I've never gone to an ER and not waited hours to be seen. I was triaged immediately and they made me go by ambulance to a hospital with a hand surgeon on duty who was waiting at the ER when I got there and immediately took me into surgery. It still didn't hit me how serious it was until after arguing that I felt fine that they bluntly told me I was 4 hours away from losing my hand and 12 hours from dying. I always thought this stuff was kind of an urban myth until it happened to me. I learned quick that it's always better to be safe rather than sorry later.
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#8
Woah! So sorry you had to go through that. Thank you for sharing. This must have been horrific. Some people are afraid of fictional monsters and demons, I'm afraid of flesh-eating bacteria and other strange natural phenomena. I read stories about microorganisms take away people sight. Scary.
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#9
Whew!  What a nightmarish ordeal!  I'm glad to hear you got excellent treatment in time.  Like you, I never thought about little nicks and cuts, and I've had many from doing exactly what you did:  reaching into the dishwasher and getting cut.  It seems that invasive, dangerous organisms have evolved.  Years ago, I was clearing dinner dishes and started to drop a glass.  I grabbed for it and stabbed my hand down to the bone.  By the next day, it had swelled terribly and hurt.  I was treated for blood poisoning, but I didn't have the blisters you described.  I had to take my senior year college essay finals like that, so I just went to the professors, explained what happened, and asked that they contact me if they couldn't read my writing.
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