A 53-year-old man presents to the emergency room with pain in his leg following a bite. They discovered a flesh-eating bacterium.
In February 2023, a 53-year-old man named Donnie Adams presented to hospital with a bite wound to his leg, which occurred in the midst of a family dispute. He was first given antibiotics and a tetanus shot. But the wound is more and more painful. When he returns to consult, he is discovered to have an infection that could have caused him to lose his legreveals NBC News.
The bite is the size of a $1 coin, the daily explains. But the area is swollen, painful and red, and for good reason: inside, an infection is spreading. When the doctor takes him to the operating room, he discovers necrosis due to flesh-eating bacteriawhich kills the tissues of his leg little by little.
The human mouth is full of bacteria
This type of infection is not necessarily due to a particular bacterium: all it takes is a doorway, a bite, a cut or even a burn to set in. Doctors remind that the human mouth is full of bacteria. That said, this type of infection following a bite is extremely rare, they point out.
Within a day or two, Donnie Adams might have had to be amputated, but doctors managed to save his leg, by removing approximately 60% of the skin from this area. The wound was closed after three months of slow healing using a suction technique that allowed the remaining skin to knit together again. The patient should normally recover full function, despite a very large scar.
Source: NBC News