Posted on 07/18/2007 6:51:25 PM PDT by kiriath_jearim
A Nacogdoches man was in critical but stable condition after three surgeries aimed at saving him from a flesh-eating bacteria that infected him during a swim off the coast of Galveston County.
Steve Gilpatrick, 58, was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, a tissue-destroying disease caused by a bacterium called Vibrio vulnificus, when he took ill three days after swimming during a July 8 fishing trip at Crystal Beach.
Gilpatrick's physician, Dr. David Herndon, the chief of burn services and professor of surgery at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, said Tuesday the situation is life-threatening because the infection spread to Gilpatrick's blood. Gilpatrick is suffering from multiple organ failure and doctors are trying to save his leg.
"I've heard of flesh-eating bacteria, but it always seemed so far away," said his wife, Linda Gilpatrick. "It's not. It's here."
The Gilpatricks regularly vacation in Galveston each summer, she said.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the bacterium Vibrio vulnificus thrives during summer months in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Swimmers with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients or people with liver disease, are most at risk. A point of entry, such as an open wound, allows the bacteria into the body.
Gilpatrick is diabetic and had an ulcer on his lower leg when he went swimming. His wife said he believed the sore was nearly healed. His leg became infected three days later and he began running a high fever.
"We figured he had some type of infection," Linda Gilpatrick said. "But we didn't, of course, realize the extent of it."
The CDC says most cases of Vibrio vulnificus occur along the Gulf Coast, but it's rare. In Texas, there were 22 cases of the infection reported in 2006, with at least seven caused by water contact, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
People can also be infected by eating contaminated seafood. Raw shellfish, particularly oysters, pose the greatest risk, according to CDC. The bacterium causes nearly all seafood-related deaths in the United States, the agency says.
Symptoms of the disease include vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. When it infects the bloodstream, it can cause fever, decreased blood pressure and blistering skin lesions.
Dr. Robert Atmar, a professor and infectious disease specialist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said seafood-eaters should be aware of the infection risk, but healthy swimmers shouldn't worry.
"I wouldn't alter (swimming) activities based on this, if you're otherwise healthy," he said. "People who have chronic illnesses like diabetes or steroids or cancer or chronic liver disease, if they have open wounds or sores, shouldn't go wading in the Gulf during the summer."
“Here’s a nice picture for those who are not too squeamish.
www.jyi.org/volumes/volume5/issue8/images/hu_1.jpg”
Point taken. If it’s all the same to all of you, I plan to continue swimming in chlorinated pools. They’re not perfect either but the odds are I’ll be safer.
I also don’t recall hearing about any uninvited sharks frolicking about in a swimming pool. Yet.
Did this guy have a cut on him?
Lookie here, raw meat on the scene and the sushiman shows up in a New York minute!
You don’t need to answer me. I read an earlier posting and it didn’t give the details. Yes, he did have an opening on his leg. This report makes a lot more sense.
There were several people swimming in the stuff. It even smelled nasty!
That was Surfside. The ugliest place in the world.
I grew up around Padre Island, TX (big dunes, white sand and clear water), and spent as much time as possible there. We move to the Lake Jackson area when I was 12, After months of begging, our mother finally took us to the “beach”. When we topped the causeway bridge and saw that nasty town and dirty beach, we begged her to take us back home. I lived in that area for three more years and never once had the desire to go to the beach.
Isn’t that a great city? Did you take the tour on the Lex?
Yes. We went there on the 4th, specifically for the tour, as it was my 7-year-old's birthday and he's a huge WWII buff. He loved it!
Yup. Same here. We spent summers at Gulf Shores, Alabama. I was never more disappointed when I moved to Houston and finally went to Galveston.
We actuallly were not planning on swimming in the Gulf at Galveston, just parked on the beach and watched the freighters and tankers passing by.
The people in East Texas were great but the land was awful. Once we were going parking and I started to pull off the highway onto a dirt road. It was wet and she immediately sain, no! Too late, my wheels sunk down in black mud so sticky and glue like that it took weeks to get it off my shoes. As luck would have it, we had only been parked a few seconds when a pickup truck with three teenage boys came by. They slammed on brakes and hooked a chain to the car and pulled us out. Always liked Texans and even better after that.
They don't come any better.
” Lookie here, raw meat on the scene and the sushiman shows up in a New York minute! “
Hehe...What’d you expect from a New Yorker ?
Great guy, but his liver had been abused by years of 'partying'.
Well they couldn’t very well let the “Body of Christ” be infected with skin eating bacteria, could they? =)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.