Posted on 08/11/2002 5:04:50 PM PDT by chance33_98
Rare bacterial infection kills Marion man, 69
By ERIC MOSKOWITZ, Standard-Times staff writer
MIKE VALERI/The Standard-Times
MARION -- For Al Holt, early retirement due to partial hearing loss from his Army days gave him more time to do the things he cared most about: fishing, golfing and spending time with his nine grandchildren.
Like every morning, Mr. Holt, 69, was up at sunrise July 15, making his way to the docks by 6. He went out on the Sea Witch, a 24-foot wooden surf hunter he'd built in 1968 with the help of a friend, Nat Mendell. He caught some fish, which he planned to eat later. And he came home complaining of soreness in his pinkie finger. Two weeks later, Albert E. Holt Jr. was dead.
The cause? A rare flesh-eating bacteria.
Doctors at Boston's New England Medical Center called it photobacterium damsela, a rare but virulent marine pathogen that strikes faster than other, better-known forms of flesh-eating bacteria.
"This is a fishing community. We wouldn't want what happened to Al to happen to someone else. It was horrendous," Linda Holt, Al's wife of 17 years, said yesterday, urging others who come home from fishing complaining of pain or soreness to see a doctor immediately.
That Monday, the 15th, Linda came home from her office job at the Acushnet Co. at 5 p.m. and found Al with a sore pinkie.
"I said, 'All right, Al, worry about it later. It's just a baby finger,'" Mrs. Holt recalled. But when he insisted, they went to Wareham's Tobey Hospital, where a doctor suspected the swelling was gout, sending him home with some anti-inflammatory medication and instructions to ice it.
By 9 p.m., the pain was unbearable, even by Al's tough standards. Just two weeks earlier, he'd caught a fish hook in each hand while taking a bluefish off the line. Norman, his youngest son, cut one of them out ("That shows you his tolerance for pain," said Russell, Norman's older brother). The other, imbedded too deeply, was removed at Tobey.
So Linda took Al back to the hospital, his hand now fully swollen, a mottled red color. The same doctor admitted he'd never seen something like this, so Al -- at Linda's urging -- was rushed to New England Medical Center.
Over the next 24 hours, he went through four, four-hour surgeries. Doctors first tried to open his hand, suspecting an infection. What they found was a flesh-eating bacteria consuming the fascia, a layer of tissue enveloping the muscle. By Tuesday night, they had removed his hand, then his arm, then portions of his back and side in an attempt to stay ahead of the bacteria, which consumes soft tissue.
Necrotizing fasciitis is commonly caused by Group A strep infection, afflicting some 1,500 people per year, said Dr. Bela Matyas, medical director of epidemiology for the state Department of Public Health. But a 2000 New England Journal of Medicine article reported just 17 known cases of this faster-moving bacteria.
With his vital organs shutting down, Al was put on a ventilator, on kidney dialysis, on life support. The nature of the original wound -- a fish hook, a fin prick, however small -- is unknown, because Al never came to. Life support was turned off July 30. Ever a fighter, Al died 38 hours later.
"We never got a chance to talk to him," said Debbie Silverberg of Mattapoisett, Al's oldest child.
That's not entirely true, said Norman, who lives in Marion. "Once, I was talking to him about the boat, and I could see his eyes close real tight. Then his blood pressure went up ... I think he heard us."
When the kids -- Debbie, Norman, Russell and Eddie -- were young, they'd go out on the Sea Witch every weekend morning to fish with Dad.
"First thing, we'd be out there," said Debbie, who still keeps a pole in the trunk of her car. "He had this old Coleman stove, and he'd be cooking bacon and eggs on it." Norman and Russell have their own boats, now, and Russell runs a diving/mooring inspection business. One time, Norman won a Governor's Cup for catching the biggest tautog in a 9/10-year-old age division, Russell said. His brother shrugged it off: "I think (Dad) caught it and handed me the pole."
Al would give out quarters to the kid who caught the first fish, or the biggest -- quarters that became dollars, once he started taking out the grandchildren, said Melissa, 14, Debbie's daughter.
On those trips with the grandchildren, Al never got much fishing done, just made sure everyone else was having fun and doing it right. The rest of the time, he was always out there, two hands full -- hand-line in one hand, pole in the other.
A Korean War veteran with a master's degree from Fitchburg State College, Al was a longtime machine-shop teacher at Greater New Bedford Regional-Vocational High School. He also was recognizable in Marion as the first man out on the water, Harbormaster Charles Bradley said. After a heart attack 18 years ago, Al became an avid walker and followed a strict diet -- one that included the fish, lobster, scallops and clams he brought home. After a proper military burial at Old Landing Cemetery, overlooking the Sea Witch mooring, Al's skiff was cast off, laden with flowers.
He enjoyed making wine and telling jokes, and he loved picking berries. A 54-year resident of Marion and the son of a police chief, he seemed to know everyone. His wake Monday drew an overflow crowd to the North Marion United Methodist Church.
"It made me really proud," Debbie said.
"Proud to be an American?" her young son, Bobby, asked.
"Proud to be a Holt."
Geraldo spends some of his summer in Marion - my Uncle is also a Harbor Master there. I have some family still living in the area and I spent some of my growing-up years in Marion and around there. Its just strange that I see this story popping up here....
Ashland, Missouri
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