Medical - Lemierre's SyndromeWritten: April 8, 2011
This is to try to explain what happened to our grandson, a young man 20 years old, and how a very serious bug put this over 6 footer flat on his back something he may never come out of. He is recovering, but only time will tell.
First - I want to define what Lemierres Syndrome actually is - from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (Quote from Wikipedia): Lemierre's syndrome (or Lemierre's disease, also known as postanginal sepsis and human necrobacillosis) is a form of thrombophlebitis[1] usually caused by the bacterium Fusobacterium necrophorum, and occasionally by other members of the genus Fusobacterium (F. nucleatum, F. mortiferum and F. varium etc.) and usually affects young, healthy adults. . Lemierre's syndrome develops most often after a sore throat caused by some bacterium of the Streptococcus genus . (Enquote)
I could go on, but I dont really understand what I would be reading because I have no training in the medical field, and wont pretend to either. I do want to tell you the story of my grandson, a 20 year young man over 6 feet tall with a background of high school football, not a small kid by any means.
He was saved by his dad who was a medical emergency responder for a lot of years and recognized signs that were far beyond a cold and rushed him to emergency. His over 6 feet tall frame dropped to below 145 pounds before they FINALLY got it turned around.
It started as a sore throat and a fever that just wouldnt go away. To quote my daughter but I think it's important to emphasize to NOT WAIT if the initial antibiotics are not working... it's the difference between life and death, REALLY! (end quote). He was very weak and could not get his breath - one of the indications of pneumonia. His muscles in his arms and legs were extremely painful, even when not moving. Further examination showed that he had an infection in the brain behind the right eye.
(Quote my daughter) the primary physician started him on antibiotics, even though most doctors won't do that because "strep Throat", which is what the symptoms appeared to be, most doctors believe that strep will get better on its own. And most doctors are straying away from over medicating with antibiotics these days. (He)was given a strong antibiotic for a week, and had the throat swabbed for a culture... which came back negative. All initial symptoms lead us and the doctors to believe it was strep. Which is why they call it the "sleepers disease" (Even if you Google Strep... you'll not find anything about Lemierre's Syndrome unless you dig... )
This generally continues with an infection of the head and neck region and grows from there.
According to Wikipedia, it is a gene from strep throat, and this really got my attention. Strep throat is a pretty common bug in todays world, almost everyone has heard of it. After more reading, I found that this is a side of strep that almost no-one has heard of. This is a very rare disease with only approximately 160 reported cases in the last 100 years. Unfortunately, my grandson is case number 161. Since the Wikipedia report, there have been two other suspected cases recently reported in the Far East.
This is a very nasty affliction that is almost always fatal from what I could find on the net. This little bug picked my 20 year old grandson to give all of us a very bad scare. Quote my daughter He was in ICU for a total (of the two visits) 14 days, and a step down unit for Stroke patients for an additional 5 days.
After 2 weeks in intensive care in one of the worlds leading hospitals in Philadelphia, he is out and home but still on IV antibiotics 24/7. He originally was on 17 bottles a day in a drip system, but after over a month, he is down to 7 bottles a day, as I write this some 35 days later.
(as of April 7) Quote my daughter - he has stopped the IV's as of yesterday (April 6) and upped the dose of Coumidin.. which I'm happy to report that (he) has noticed that suddenly the eye is moving... and IT IS !!!! There really is a difference!!!! (end quote).
He shows good indications of recovery, but it will be a long time before his body will ever return to what he was before all this happened --- IF EVER. The testing will continue, of that I am sure. They dont know if there is any permanent brain damage or not. The muscle control of his right eye has been severely affected. (Quote my daughter) The eye patch serves two functions... no strain until the clot starts to clear, and eliminate the double vision, which actually was triple vision at first. (end quote).
I dont know about the thinking process (possible unknown brain damage) such as balancing a checkbook as they have not yet mentioned it.
(Quote my daughter) we won't know if there is damage until the (blood) clot thins. If the nerves are only pressured and not "damaged", then no long lasting problems. From what we can tell, though, the eye is moving, so the clot is thinning. We have been told that the one thing in our body that takes an enormous time to heal are nerves... We'll be asking a lot of questions tomorrow.
April 8). Today was a good visit. The explanation about the spots on the brain are believed to be "pieces of the clot breaking away and landing in spots on the brain. They will eventually dissolve as will the clot. But we still have about 6 months to monitor this. The main arterial vein is starting to open up and some of the pressure on the optical nerve is loosening." The eye is much better. Dr. Pineda is very happy with that and we see the ophthalmologist on the 25th.
So, in 3 months (June 2011) we do another 3 types of MRI's. We have to get a chest x-ray and see that specialist to see if the holes in the lungs are better and also not infected. We have the ophthalmology and he also needs to have a complete set of x-rays on his teeth... to see if there are any pockets that the infection has seeped into.
Still to come:MRINeurologistChest XraysSpecialistOpthomologistDentist and xrays......(end quote)
The main reason I am writing this, is to help spread the word that Strep Throat should not be taken lightly. It can be worse than any of us imagined - at least it was for my family. If your family or friends have any of the systems, please seek medical help, immediately.
References:
Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJournal of clinical microbiologyNew England Journal of Medicine Blog story and pictures of Justin E. Rodgers by Tammy Valencia.PLUS: Our family is living it
Roy and Sherry Curtis Benson, Arizona?t=Go11.33
iAutoblog the premier
autoblogger software