Pray for this boy and his family. He's got the fight of his life ahead of him.
Posted on 02/21/2006 12:15:43 PM PST by Sopater
POSTED: 12:01 am PST February 21, 2006 UPDATED: 9:25 am PST February 21, 2006
SEATTLE -- A 6-year-old Bellingham boy is fighting to survive a deadly infection that's killing the tissue in his face.
Jake Finkbonner has necrotizing faciitis, a ravaging bacteria.
Finkbonner was airlifted from Bellingham to Children's Hospital a week ago. He's had three surgeries so far to try to save his life.
The problem started when the boy received a fat lip from a fall at a basketball game.
Jake's father, Donny Finkbonner, said surgeons worked on his son the night he was brought to Children's Hospital in Seattle. "We wanted the truth from the surgeons and they said we’re operating on him to save his life," said Finkbonner.
The boy’s family members said the bacteria were consuming him before their eyes. "He didn’t have any facial features that were identifiable as my little boy," said Elsa Finkbonner, Jake's mother.
Antibiotics wouldn't stop the infection from spreading so surgeons had to cut out the infected tissue.
HOW TO HELP A spaghetti dinner fundraiser is being held for Jake's medical care on Friday, Feb. 24 at 6 p.m. at the Ferndale High School Cafeteria.
Elsa Finkbonner said their faith is giving them strength. "Our son's life is in God’s hands, and it’s out of our control. We just ask for more prayers."
Doctors are making sure they remove all of the bacteria.
The boy is expected to need extensive plastic surgery.
Just horrible.
Prayers for Jake and his family to keep fighting... and prayers the doctors can stop this.
OMG. Prayers for the little boy and his family.
How does something like this happen from a fall and a fat lip? I had lots of those as a kid in the 50s.
God bless this boy and his family.
Good God that is absolutely terrible.
I was wondering the same. Germ on the baseball field, then all those kids were exposed and brought it home to their families on their clothes.
Prayers for the little boy.
I'm a big a fan of a "pay your own bills or don't get treated" approach to medical care, but this is the sort of very rare, unforeseeable and unpreventable, and very expensive condition that could appropriately be paid for via some sort of federal catastrophic illness coverage. If we weren't footing the bill for all sorts of routine treatment for people who spent years following the step-by-step plan for getting diabetes or lung cancer or emphysema or alcohol-induced liver damage, the taxpayers could easily step in to cover things like this, and like the people who got anthrax in the spate of anthrax-mailing terrorism.
No one except a handful of super-rich people can afford to pay for this kind of treatment, and no one has a clue how to prevent this condition. The costs are likely to exceed any insurance plan's limit, and "spaghetti dinners" are not a rational solution. Neither is letting this unlucky little boy die, when saving him is likely to allow him to grow up to be a productive citizen whose contribution to the economy eventually exceeds what was spent on him. And neither is forcing doctors and hospital staff to work for free.
This almost sounds like a virus, rather than bacteria. Aren't bacteria susceptible to antibiotics, and viruses aren't?
I've heard about people being bit by brown recluse spiders, and having this same type of necrosis eat part of their hand away.
I'm going to have to do some reasearch, so I can understand what this is about.
Here's a bunch of links on it:
http://www.google.com/search?q=necrotizing+faciitis&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US
There is a sick child here where we live. At every school in my city there is a donation jar for surgery for this little boy. I have put whatever money I have on me in the jar as well as many other's. I believe in a very serious time of need to help a family pay for their medical bills, but I don't believe in being forced to do it. I want the choice of donating to whatever cause i see fit. Saving children's lives is one I believe in and will give whenever asked to a sick child!
Awfully hard to ensure that donations collected that way go where they're supposed to, or that they are sufficient. But forced taking isn't good either. Ideally, any federal program to cover things like this should be funded through voluntary donations, maybe via a line on the tax return forms. If word of mismanagement got out, donations would plummet, so there would be incentive to keep it clean and efficient, despite the fact that it would be run by government.
Prayers sent - In Jesus all things are possible - I am praying for his recovery.
prayers
ping...
I don't think a federal program is the answer.
Prayers for this little. This is bad. My grandmother in law passed away from this very thing. It started on her face also.
Already posted here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1582592/posts
Hookers in the Seattle Area have this too,one touch and you take this stuff home to the family.
I'm generally not in favor of them either, but there are way too many situations where a responsible working family with medical insurance that they've been paying for, gets wiped out financially by something like this. And by leaving the gap-closing to private ad hoc donations and fundraisers, those routes are legitimized in a way that enables scammers to mimic them easily.
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