My NG Buddy that was in NOLA has a strange infection

[bamademo]

He just got back last week and showed up where I work today (Army Hospital) with his elbow swollen to the size of a football. He *SCRATCHED* his elbow in NOLA a couple a weeks ago jumping off a truck. The boats that went by him sprayed water droplets in the air and somehow got into his little scratch on his elbow. He also had to breath in the water droplets. He had a piece of paper he showed me that stated that "This soldier has been exposed to petroleum distillates, flotsam, jetsam, fecal material and decaying animal and human carcasses in fetid water". I'm worried. :-(

[jody]

1. I hope he gets better soon. Please tell him to keep records of

the incident in case he needs to file for VA benefits years later.

[gulfcoastliberal]

2. Sounds like a staph infection. n/t

[rateyes]

3. There is an infection carried by fish that watermen,

others sometimes get--it's rare--but it causes extreme swelling and then gangrene--it can be curbed before gangrene sets in--but, the treatment has to take place QUICKLY--it is fast moving. I can't remember the name of it, but have seen stories from the Chesapeake Bay area. I hope they are pumping your friend with some heavy antibiotics, and the right one.

Edit to add: It's called "Vibrio," and if it is not treated quickly it can be fatal. I'm not trying to scare you, but anybody with an open wound should be very careful about swimming in warm-saltwater, and if they do, should clean the wound immediately. Vibrio is rare, but it does occur in a few people on a yearly basis.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/vibriovulnificus_g.htm#What%20type%20of%20illness%20does%20V.%20vulnificus%20cause

[bamademo]

6. Thanks for the info, I'll tell him.

Don't mean to undermine Army Docs but I don't trust them to diagnose correctly and there is no infectious disease specialist at our little medical facility.

[rateyes]

7. I'm not a doctor...

but, I've seen this stuff before. Of course, it could be anything. I hope that they have taken a culture of whatever infection it is and are testing different anti-biotics against it to see the best at killing it. It could be Cellulitis, too, or any number of infections---the cut on the arm though made me think of this. I've known of watermen when I lived on the Chesapeake bay whose fingers and hands looked like "hams," from this stuff after getting "finned" by a fish. You can get Vibrio from eating contaminated food, too, which is another reason (along with hepatitis) that I don't eat raw oysters, or any other "raw" fish. And, I don't know if fisteria, either is communicable to humans.

I don't mean to trash any doctors--your buddy needs to, IMHO, as well make sure that his doctors know what they are doing. Not all doctors are "good" doctors---same with any profession--"qualified" means different things to different people.

[bamademo]

12. My Brother and SIL are both ER Doctors...They went to Kenner.

To the airport where they were treating patients. My SIL was semi-hysterical for the 45 minutes I talked to her and she's an experienced trauma board certified ER Doctor.

[rateyes]

14. I LOVE hearing those words "board certified"...

because to be honest with you---I wouldn't let a doctor who WASN'T board certified in whatever procedure "practice" medicine on me or any of my loved ones.

There were some doctors in NOLA who were not allowed to work on patients because of "liability" issues some FEMA people had down there. They literally watched people die on a technicality.

PISSES ME OFF TO NO END.

[elehhhhna]

29. Get him to a REAl doctor pronto.

Mil docs so screwed up my bro's arm he had to (almost)sue (they relented & paid) to go to a civilian specialist.

[Carni]

18. Um--and we're eating the fish they catch out of that water?

Jesus-- and that would be BEFORE whatever spilled during Katrina?

I guess I will just swear off seafood and go right to the mad cow infected type foods :(

[bamademo]

21. Well, I'm swearing off Gulf shrimp and oysters for a while

I'll dearly miss them. There's nothing like buying shrimp netted the same day as you boil them up. Dauphin Island, Alabama is one of my favorite places on earth and they were almost wiped off the earth. However, most of what was destroyed were vacation homes.

www.stampkeller.com

[Carni]

26. My husband is one of those people that can eat spoiled foods

Seriously...this is gross sounding (and granted he is gross for eating bad foods) but he literally eats bad food with little or no after effects.

He freezes things that he suspects are bad and marks the package with his name and then later he prepares them and he eats them (Ok my family is somewhat dysfunctional and he's like an Anthony Bourdain type lol he'll eat anything)

All that aside mr food ate a bad raw oyster years ago and had the begginings of paralyses and the whole deal (we are talking many years ago)he was deathly ill for three days.

I have shrimp I bought pre-katrina and I guess I am going to have to horde that bag all for my lonesome until further notice! :(

[Lochloosa]

30. Oysters from Apalachicola Florida should be fine.

ummm ummmm
:toast:

[kestrel91316]

20. Vibrio is a gastrointestinal pathogen. I have never heard of it being

involved in WOUND infections. This is curious.

Do you have a bona fide medical source/link for this or are you just reporting "what somebody said"?

(I have a special interest in wound management and am intrigued by this)

[rateyes]

28. I'll look for it...

but the link that I gave above, from the CDC also tells about it being able to get into an open wound. I've seen several news stories with pictures when I lived on the Chesapeake Bay. I'll look for the links and get back to you.

Here's one news story I found by going to google news and searching "Chesapeake Bay+infection"

http://www.bayjournal.com/article.cfm?article=2608

[kestrel91316]

24. Vibrio is a gastrointestinal pathogen. I have never heard of it being

involved in WOUND infections. This is curious.

Do you have a bona fide medical source/link for this or are you just reporting "what somebody said"?

(I have a special interest in wound management and am intrigued by this)

[Catshrink]

4. My nephew just returned from NG duty in MS

He is fine although his unit is quarantined. One of his fellow guardsmen has dysentary -- the guy brushed his teeth with tap water.

I'm worried that something will crop up in my nephew. He was in Gulfport but who knows what kind of crap he breathed in.

[stellanoir]

5. Woh

"His elbow swollen to the size of a football" from direct exposure to that incredibly toxic sludge. I can only imagine how many this has happened to. With our complicit media, we'll never hear dukey about it though. They'll keep talking about the dolphins though. Don't get me wrong. I love dolphins. But with all this human sufferring, I can't believe how much they've been talking about the dolphins. The dolphins could probably fare far better on thier own.

Hope your friend drinks gallons and gallons of water and gets some serious treatment. I've heard of tremendous inflamation from fish poisoning and some infections riddled with pesticides around here, but nothing so extreme. Hope he heals up okay.

[MidnightWind]

8. Anderson Cooper did a story on this last Friday

he showed how they had to disinfect their shoes before they entered their hotel each night and how they had a doctor on staff to treat their ailments. Some of the crew had developed eye infections from being splashed with fetid water and others had cuts, scratches, and stomach ailments from being exposed to different things while in NoLa.

[bamademo]

9. The dolphins are lucky they got watched into the Gulf instead of the crud

I'm hoping they will be okay. They're very intelligent creatures.

My NG friend has been to Afghanistan and now NOLA. He's so funny and a HUGH Crimson Tide fan like me. He taught the little Afghanistan kids to say "Roll Tide".

[HeeBGBz]

17. Yeah, the dolphins

George Bush don't like sea lions...

[peacetalksforall]

10. petroleum distillates, flotsam, jetsam, fecal material and decaying

and human carcasses in fetid water.

Well, that about says it all. The right wing is flotsam, jetsam, fecal material and causes human carcasses whether half way around the world or right here in our own deep south. They denied funds for our infrastructure. The request for funds to strengthen the levees at New Orleans was very specific. It was denied.

Death by Cheney and Bush - of a city and a whole lot of souls.

I hope this guy gets to keep his arm and his life. God speed the healing.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

11. For what it's worth.... google "My Defense". It cannot hurt. nt.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Not good. I hope they can clean him up and get him better

[LittleClarkie]

15. I hope he can get to see a non-military doctor

Military doctors suck, sadly.

This is why it would be bad for people to go back right now.

Hope he'll be okay.

[rainbow4321]

16. Vibrio??

I work in a hospital and there was a long memo talking about this disease...it got into the wounds of some evacuees. The memo was to local hospitals to look out for it in any survivors who are hospitalized w/ wounds. It said that family members exposed to the patient should also be tested for it.

But with everything floating around down there, it could be other stuff, too. I hope he gets better soon!



http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm54d914a1.htm


A case of post-hurricane Vibrio infection was defined as clinical illness in a person who had resided in a state struck by Hurricane Katrina (i.e., Alabama, Louisiana, or Mississippi) with illness onset and reporting during August 29–September 11, where Vibrio species was isolated from a wound, blood, or stool culture. Among cases, a wound-associated Vibrio case was defined as an illness that likely resulted from infection of a wound or abrasion acquired before or during immersion in floodwaters.

Wound-Associated Illnesses
Eighteen wound-associated Vibrio cases were reported, in residents of Mississippi (seven) and Louisiana (five); in persons displaced from Louisiana to Texas (two), Arkansas (two), and Arizona (one); and in a person displaced from Mississippi to Florida (one). Speciation was performed in clinical laboratories for 17 of the wound-associated cases; 14 (82%) were V. vulnificus, and three (18%) were V. parahaemolyticus. Five (28%) patients with wound-associated Vibrio infections died; three deaths were associated with V. vulnificus infection, and two were associated with V. parahaemolyticus infection.

[kestrel91316]

27. All I can say is WOW. Vibrio wound infection?? Whould'a thunk.

[merci_me]

19. Here's a link to someone who might be able to direct him...

Here in Houston, doctors have treated well over 20,000 people from New Orleans who were exposed to the waters there. Maybe the symptoms you described are known and been treated here. Maybe a doctor here could confer on the phone with his doctor there.

My immediate thought is to contact Lt.Col. Rick Noriega (Democratic State Representative and member of the Texas Air National Guard), who just got back from Afganistan days before Katrina hit. He's been working tirelessly to set up one of the large shelters here, including the medical clinic.

Here is his website http://www.ricknoriega.com/
Please read his wife's story "Proud of My Husband" to learn what he's been doing.

As you may know, Houston is bracing for Hurricane Rita this week, so I don't know how easy it is to reach Rick in the next few days. As things stand now, I should see Rick and Melissa Sunday, but that's a longtime off. The link has both his e-mail and a phone number. If you can't get to him for a possible name of someone from the medical team here, PM me and I'll see if I can reach him or Melissa.

Mary

[bamademo]

25. Thank You for this. I'll see my bud tomorrow and get a progress report

I'm bookmarking you in case I need more info.

[rateyes]

22. I hope to hell they are being AGRESSIVE with

his treatment. AROUND THE CLOCK Agressive.

[in_cog_ni_to]

23. Ewwwwwwwww. Poor guy. I sure hope he's alright. n/t

[Iris]

31. Has he gone to see a doctor?

If not, why not?