After they ran the test that finally showed the Capnocytophaga canimorsus infection, doctors added another antibiotic and an antifungal treatment to the patient’s medical routine as some of his afflictions waned and others worsened. The treatment was too late.I added that boldface, and I want to highlight the treatment of recent cases in the United States:
Toward the end of his life, all of his extremities had gangrene and a CT scan showed that he had severe brain swelling with a lack of oxygen, according to the paper.
The man’s relatives made a mutual decision to reduce his treatment. He died after 16 days of care, according to doctors.
Last year, a Wisconsin man lost his legs, hands and nose after contracting the same bacteria from his dog’s saliva. He’s walking again with the help of prosthetics, FOX 6 reported.If the German man had received amputations and continued full-strength antibiotics, would he not still be alive? The real story here seems to be not that a dog's lick could kill you — the attention-getting scare headline — but that the readiness to solve medical problems with death varies from place to place.
In July, an Ohio woman had both her arms and legs partially amputated after waking from a coma that was caused by C. canimorsus, Fox 8 Cleveland reported.
ADDED: From place to place and from relative to relative.
ALSO: Here's the 3rd-highest-rated comment at WaPo:
Dear Conan the Dog,
PLEASE tell me you licked the President during your White House visit.
- A True Patriot
Posts
35 comments:
Does your dog lick . . .?
Terry Schiavo could not be reached for comment.
Alcoholics represent around 24% of individuals presenting with C. canimorsus infections.
Was it a boy dog or a girl dog?
“PLEASE tell me you licked the President during your White House visit.”
Not nice, but funny, sort of like Trump’s humor.
"PLEASE tell me you licked the President"
Don't they know by now that what doesn't kill him makes him stronger? Careful what you wish for, progs.
PROOF that american health care, is The WORST in the world...
IF, your goal with your health care; is population reduction
I'm trying to imagine wanting to live with all my limbs amputated. Makes me think of Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun.
PLEASE tell me you licked the President during your White House visit.
Anyone else glad that the Democrat's are the party of compassion and tolerance? I mean imagine what things would be like if they weren't. People would be getting hit over the head with bike locks, people would be getting hounded out of restaurants, congressmen would be getting shot and physically attacked, nominees would be getting slimed with lies and people would be wishing a painful death on the president.
I have always been repulsed by the thought of a dog, or cat, licking me. Maybe worse than my phobia of spiders.
We recently had to euthanize our aged dog. She was old, had severe glaucoma that made her blind and, according to the vet, was very painful. The choice was expensive and invasive treatments that would be done regularly and with no guarantee of success, or euthanize. We agonized over the choice, and both felt badly afterwards. The vet was tremendous at helping us cope with the decision as the right choice from equally bad alternatives.
It must have been a very difficult decision for the family to cease treatments and allow the man to die. Different people differ on what is best. Close relatives are more likely to know the individual's preference: use of heroic measures, quality of life questions, etc. Tough to know the prognosis for this guy but he seemed to be facing amputation of most or all of his extremities, and the expected impact of the lack of oxygen to the brain was likely severe disability.
And everyone thought that dog creeping-up on his owner in that TikTok video was just being silly.
Think again. The lick of death.
". . . that the readiness to solve medical problems with death varies from place to place"
Uh, death is never a solution for any "medical problem"--it is a consequence. Actively withholding any form of treatment that has appropriate clinical support is euthanasia--killing the patient. Obviously other people have survived through amputation (not saying it was appropriate here, just that it has a clinical basis). The more general problem is this idea that depriving people of their last days is something good rather than something evil (sure, with palliative care for those in severe pain). This utilitarian metaphysical stance hurts people.
"Men are more often bitten by dogs than are women (3:1), whereas women are more often bitten by cats (3:1).
...A dog's mouth is rich in bacteria, but only 15-20% of dog bites become infected. In contrast, approximately 30-50% of cat bites become infected."
a healthy immune system is like a Timex watch
...it can Take A Lickin' and Keep On Tickin'
Think again. The lick of death.
like those scenes in "The Dogfather"
I'm wondering what pre-existing conditions all these C. canimorsus victims had that led to infection.
I feel worse for someone who loses all 4 limbs than someone who accepts death as the result of a terminal illness when treatment isn't working.
Democratics have a plan for that. Germany is the way to go.
Wait! in! Line! to! die!
Dog-owner dies after democratic decision in Deutschland.
Germans have lost the will to live.
Context, people.
Divide infected people by number of dog licks across the world = a risk smaller that the chances of Rachel Maddow having sex with Trump.
What if the victim left all his assets to the dog in a will? Grand Jury?
"... the readiness to solve medical problems with death varies from place to place."
A very good point and well-stated. Taken to an extreme, it would eliminate the need for doctors (and medical care) completely. Utopia to some, perhaps.
I recall Rahmbo's brother Ezekiel Emmanuel saying that people over 75 ought not to seek medical care when they get ill, to save money, or reduce the surplus population, or something. I looked it up and was distressed to find that he is 3 or 4 years younger than me. I was hoping to see whether he changed his mind when he got older, but I may not get to see that.
bagoh20 @10:04 AM: "...a risk smaller that the chances of Rachel Maddow having sex with Trump."
Talk about an infection risk! Yech.
Trump is far too germophobic for that to happen.
I remember as a kid being told that dogs’ mouths were very sanitary. I guess that was an old wives’ tale.
Hey - my dog licks my tongue fairly often (and I lick back, too) and I am not dead yet, or even sick. Of course, my **** fell off recently...
My friend had a German shepherd, seemingly friendly dog that one day out of the blue bit my wife solidly in the calf. I never trust them. I have another friend with one, but this one I have known since it was a puppy and so I am part of the pack, I do trust that one. About the same size as Conan.
"...a risk smaller that the chances of Rachel Maddow having sex with Trump.”
Unless you are talking about in her private fantasies. In that case I would put those odds a lot higher.
I'm still trying to understand how the bacteria infiltrated his body. Licking his face/mouth?
The article states that he had no open wounds. I like dogs, but draw the line at licking anything other than my hand.
bagoh20 @10:04 AM:
I think you can shorten that statement just as effectively to:
"...a risk smaller that the chances of Rachel Maddow having sex."
Tomcc, the bacteria can enter through a small scratch the dog licks.
I also found this from one of the links in the article, which I thought was interesting:
"Dr. Kobe said this type of severe reaction is very rare and only happens to roughly one in a million people. It’s also unpredictable. A person can be exposed to the bacteria and/or the dog for years and never have had a previous reaction."
As for the German man, the Gharie and Phidippus comments re Schiavo and Emmanuel are likely closest to the reasons he died.
Back in 1995 a friend was in a serious car accident and was in a coma. We were told she had suffered severe brain damage but there was no way of knowing the actual results until she recovered from a coma, which was also in doubt. If her treatment was continued and she regained consciousness what would her challenges and would she be able to deal with them? If her treatment was discontinued would she die quickly or be left in a worst state? Her mother was traumatized by the choice which ultimately was made by friends. It's not always a question of what the medical science is capable of achieving, it's also a question of quality of life and the person involved. There was no question in my friend's case she would not have been happy living with severe brain damage so we let her go. It's good to have a medical directive which spells out what you would want for yourself in case you are incapacitated.
The biggest problem with medical directives spelling out what one wants is that the only way a hospital will kill you (in the US) is by withholding treatment; they won't do anything active. This means a living will that says "kill me after two weeks in coma" really means "let me die of thirst in my coma". It's a bit less terrifying if one is reliant upon a machine. Presumably, one only lives for a couple of minutes - as opposed to days - after pulling the plug.
Divide infected people by number of dog licks across the world
I was told there would be no math.
@Unknown: In my friend's case, after her life support apparatus was removed she passed away peacefully within 30 minutes.
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