Althouse: "Man who repaired Harvey-flooded homes dies of flesh-eating bacteria."

October 25, 2017

"Man who repaired Harvey-flooded homes dies of flesh-eating bacteria."

CNN reports.

ADDED: Like Jesus, Josue Zurita was a carpenter. He "moved to the United States from Mexico to help his family and 'remained to help with the rebuilding after hurricane Harvey.'"

35 comments:

CStanley said...: I imagine "Harvey" will not be a popular baby name this year.; 10/25/17, 9:28 AM
Bill, Republic of Texas said...: He should have just thrown the potted plant away.; 10/25/17, 9:32 AM
Nonapod said...: When filth gets into an open wound, tetanus used to be the primary concern. But necrotizing fasciitis is the stuff of nightmares.; 10/25/17, 9:34 AM
madAsHell said...: I'm not clicking a link to CNN.; 10/25/17, 9:43 AM
rehajm said...: I'm not clicking a link to CNN.

Talk about reasons not to fly. A walk thru the terminal is a Pyongyang rally.; 10/25/17, 9:51 AM
rhhardin said...: Get a tetanus shot whenever you get a new puppy. It's like daylight savings change and smoke detector batteries.; 10/25/17, 9:53 AM
Big Mike said...: But necrotizing fasciitis is the stuff of nightmares.

The doctor explaining how one can see the infection spread while you watch it, that scared me.; 10/25/17, 10:02 AM
Bob Ellison said...: You're not here forever.; 10/25/17, 10:09 AM
William said...: Today's feel good story. There's always an extra kick when someone dies of a hideous disease as a direct result of doing a good deed. On the plus side, you win martyrdom points and a place in heaven......If Mother Theresa had died of leprosy, she would be a much more potent saint.; 10/25/17, 10:12 AM
Oso Negro said...: Meh, it happens every hurricane. Here in Galveston we lost our local convenience store owner to the same in Hurricane Ike. At the end of every day of cleanup, my son and I would strip, inspect each other for cuts and scrapes and nicks, and douse the same with hydrogen peroxide. Just one of the things you do if you want to live.; 10/25/17, 10:44 AM
MadisonMan said...: Nature wants to kill you.

I'm sorry it happened to a person who was helping others. That's not the what the reward should be.; 10/25/17, 10:45 AM
Roughcoat said...: This prompts, on my part, a question for all you army/marine veterans of ME deployments. I will likely be visiting, if that is the word, the war zone in northern Iraq sometime this winter. Are their remedies and/or preventatives to such maladies as flesh-eating diseases that I might take along with me? This is something that actually scares me. You can't defend against it with a gun, and I find this unsettling.; 10/25/17, 11:02 AM
Oso Negro said...: @Roughcoat - Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands. Pack some Betadine and use it on anything suspicious. Bring a small water filter and don't trust anything from a tap. Avoid fresh fruits and salads.; 10/25/17, 11:09 AM
MadisonMan said...: Roughcoat, thank you for serving.

Basic hygiene and due diligence should prevent it. Keep any dressings dry, if you get a wound.; 10/25/17, 11:09 AM
Darrell said...: Basic hygiene and due diligence should prevent it.

That must be why so many die from it when being treated at the hospital then.; 10/25/17, 11:37 AM
Roughcoat said...: Oso Negro and MadisonMan:

Thanks, guys. Good advice, and I will certainly follow it.

Partial disclosure: I will not be serving IN the military, but WITH the military, and associated groups. Probably, mostly, ideally with Assyrian Christian military units, with whom I will be embedded . . . if things go according to plan. The flesh eating-type maladies scare me, I admit it. I am not too scared by the prospect of kinetic-type injuries not because I'm especially brave (I'm not) but because I've been getting kinetically injured all my life, at regular intervals and sometimes very seriously, hence I'm sort of numb to the possibilities; which is another way of saying that I lack imagination. But I can and do imagine, quite vividly, flesh eating maladies, and these imaginings give me the willies.; 10/25/17, 11:45 AM
Yancey Ward said...: I strongly suspect that certain people are just more susceptible to this malady than most other people, otherwise it would be far more common. The bacteria itself is widely dispersed, and most people truly aren't that careful with small wounds either.; 10/25/17, 11:58 AM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: "like Jesus"

I'm sorry the man passed away, but that might be laying it on a little thick.

In other, OT, human life news, a baby was found barely alive in a dumpster in Austin this morning. Comments are full of people arguing with straight faces that this is why we need more abortion. Sure, because a baby dying in the womb via vacuum tube is so much less sad than a baby dying in a dumpster. I mean, do dead babies bother you or not? Make up your minds, people.

In other other human life news, Texas Monthly is celebrating this morning that "the Trump administration" was unable to prevent an undocumented teenager from getting an abortion. My favorite comment was, "sure a fetus might be human but not all humans have worth or deserve to live." Found the Nazi!; 10/25/17, 12:08 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

In other, OT, human life news, a baby was found barely alive in a dumpster in Austin this morning.

Baby placed in container not generally used for that purpose.

Like Jesus.; 10/25/17, 12:20 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Darrell said...

That must be why so many die from it when being treated at the hospital then.

The ones who are being treated at the hospital are the ones who did not prevent it. Likely because they skipped the basic hygiene and due diligence. Like pretty much everyone does for minor cuts and scrapes.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of flesh.; 10/25/17, 12:24 PM
Curious George said...: "Darrell said...
That must be why so many die from it when being treated at the hospital then."

No shit. I just started month six of antibiotic therapy, along with twwo follow up surgeries, from two infections acquired from hip replacement.; 10/25/17, 12:34 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: I work with my hands, and I've always been vaguely terrified of necrotizing fascitis. My advice to you, Roughcoat, would be to take along an ample supply of band aids and a sulfa-based ointment like Neomycin. Don't ignore any injury. I heard of a guy who died of NF contracted in a cracked cuticle. Neomycin is miraculous stuff.; 10/25/17, 12:38 PM
Gahrie said...: I am infamous at work and with my family for not going to the doctor even though I have had an open wound on my leg for years.

For those not paying attention....clinics and hospitals are where you get flesh eating bacteria and MRSA infections....; 10/25/17, 12:46 PM
Chuck said...: Wow, this is another insight into the realm of Althouseland.

Seeing the comments that "hospitals are the places you get these terrible infections."

This guy presented for treatment with an (old) already-serious infection. He might not have had a serious problem at all, if he had gotten proper wound care from the outset. He didn't die from a hospital-originated infection. He died because the IV antibiotics and wound debridement that YOU CAN ONLY GET IN A HOSPITAL couldn't save him from his own negligent self-care.

I see little snippets of this more and more at the Althouse blog. The conspiratorial right. The tinfoil hat right. Where Obama was born in Kenya, and thousands of Muslims cheered the fall of the twin towers, and where vaccines cause autism.

And Steve Bannon wonders why people laugh at his flock. I just want him to explain the murder of Andrew Breitbart.; 10/25/17, 1:21 PM
Helenhightops said...: So what was the organism? They only tell you it wasn’t Vibrio. So if they think it came from flood waters, was it Aeromonas? Because if it’s Strep or Staph it didn’t come from the flood waters.; 10/25/17, 1:27 PM
Tommy Duncan said...: Blogger Chuck said...

"Wow, this is another insight into the realm of Althouseland."

Thanks, Chuck. Sometimes I forget how special you are. I'm glad Althouse provides a blog all about you.

Let me save you some effort in responding by re-posting one of your earlier comments for you:

"You dumb, miserable, hateful fuckwad. ...(Y)ou stupid little troll."; 10/25/17, 1:41 PM
Gahrie said...: Wow, this is another insight into the realm of Althouseland.

Seeing the comments that "hospitals are the places you get these terrible infections."

"MRSA is usually spread by direct contact with an infected wound or from contaminated hands, usually those of healthcare providers. Also, people who carry MRSA but do not have signs of infection can spread the bacteria to others."

https://www.cdc.gov/mrsa/healthcare/index.html; 10/25/17, 1:52 PM
Fernandinande said...: Gahrie said...
"...usually those of healthcare providers. Also, people who carry MRSA but do not have signs of infection can spread the bacteria to others."

That was under the heading
"Who is at Risk, and How is MRSA Spread in Healthcare Settings?"

That web page excludes descriptions of catching it in other settings.

Wiki:
"Sources of MRSA may include working at municipal waste water treatment plants, exposure to secondary waste water spray irrigation, exposure to run off from farm fields fertilized by human sewage sludge or septage, hospital settings, or sharing/using dirty needles. The risk of infection during regional anesthesia is considered to be very low, though reported."

But I know a diabetic (="risk factor") who caught it in the hospital.; 10/25/17, 2:04 PM
Gahrie said...: I don't go to waste water treatment plants or use needles either.; 10/25/17, 2:08 PM
Chuck said...: Right, Gahrie. And about MRSA; the guy in this story didn't have it. And no matter what, he wasn't infected while in a hospital. He presented with a badly-infected wound. Because he didn't go to a hospital (or wound care center) soon enough.

I know very well that hospital treatment (joint replacement, surgeries of all kinds, iatrogenic injuries, intravenous access) can result in infections.

This wasn't one of those cases. Instead of standing for the proposition, "Stay away from hospitals if you can!", this case stands for the proposition, "By all means get professional wound care for any cut, et cetera, where there is a possibility of infection. And get there quickly if there is any sign of infection."; 10/25/17, 2:28 PM
Yancey Ward said...: You don't need to be infected with antibiotic resistant organisms to get and die from NF- I am sure a staph culture from the 1800s would do the trick just as well.

However, I do think it is true that MRSA infections are more likely caught in medical settings simply because it is there that the bacteria face the largest assault from all classes of antibiotics on a continual basis.; 10/25/17, 2:40 PM
Gahrie said...: Thank you Chuck, for sharing your wisdom with us. I'm just glad you can spare time from your busy life being perfect to correct what you think I said. If only we deplorables would learn our lesson and listen to our betters in all things I'm sure we would all be happier, wiser and all around better people. I apologize for my intransience...I'm really not worth the effort you have taken to show me the error of my ways.

However I'm a slow learner...could you please explain to me again while losing with class and dignity is preferable to being vulgar and actually winning?; 10/25/17, 2:51 PM
Bill said...: If Mother Theresa had died of leprosy, she would be a much more potent saint.

But she lived in a crisis of faith for 50 years or so, which is another kind of martyrdom.; 10/25/17, 4:13 PM
Known Unknown said...: "He knew what he was getting into."; 10/25/17, 6:31 PM
Darrell said...: Sure, Chuck. One of the older names for necrotizing fasciitis is hospital gangrene. No wonder so many people laugh at the Chuckhead.; 10/25/17, 8:45 PM