Doctors were not immediately able to establish a diagnosis.
A woman in Australia has become the third known person to become infected with the bacterium that causes the deadly blackleg disease in cattle and sheep. She is the only one who survived.
Yahoo writes about this.
What is known about the case
The fact is that a 48-year-old woman worked in the garden without gloves. After this, she felt nausea and vomiting for three days, and also developed pain in the lower right corner of her abdomen, which gradually worsened. She went to the hospital and blood tests showed that her kidneys and liver had failed and that lactic acid, a substance produced by muscles during high-intensity exercise and an indicator of septic shock, had accumulated in her bloodstream. She also had diarrhea.
Although a computed tomography (CT) scan of the abdomen showed no signs of inflammation or infection, she was prescribed antibiotics as a precaution.
It is noted that after five hours the abdominal pain became so severe that doctors performed another CT scan. This time it became clear that her colon was inflamed, as was her cecum, the place where the small intestine meets the large intestine. The woman was admitted to the intensive care unit. Subsequently, doctors were able to detect a deadly form of Clostridium chauvoei bacteria in the patient’s blood.
These bacteria usually live in the soil as spores, which, when ingested or inhaled, enter the bloodstream and muscle tissue. When oxygen levels in muscles are reduced—for example, during exercise—they sprout and produce toxins, such as those that destroy blood cells and enzymes that break down DNA. In cattle, the destruction of cells leads to the characteristic appearance of black leg.
An Australian woman was known to garden with her bare hands covered in scratches from a domestic cat. This is probably how she got infected.
Doctors prescribed her:
Thanks to this treatment, her kidneys and liver began to function again, and her lactic acid levels decreased enough that she was discharged from the hospital.
However, after a few days the abdominal pain and diarrhea returned. Another CT scan found holes in her colon, which were later confirmed to be death of intestinal tissue – necrotizing enterocolitis. Doctors had to remove the right side of her colon and install a fatigue test, which involves redirecting the colon through an opening in the abdomen so that stool can still pass.
After two and a half weeks, the woman's health returned to normal, and after three month she was able to remove the fatigue.
So far, only two people have been infected with Clostridium chauvoei, and both died as a result. One person had a weakened immune system, and the other had a serious soft tissue infection called gas gangrene, which cannot be effectively treated.
Experts believe the Australian woman survived because she was treated early with antibiotics, urgently treated she had surgery and had no other serious illnesses. HBOT may also have helped, but doctors do not have enough evidence to confirm this.
It was previously said that 29-year-old Liam Findlay, forced to fight for his life for many years due to a rare disease, tried to dull the pain from him with water. Over the past year, a man almost died twice due to the amount of liquid he drank.
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