N.C. Probes Flesh-Eating Bacteria Death

Friday, March 10th, 2006

N.C. Probes Flesh-Eating Bacteria Death:

North Carolina health officials are investigating the death of a woman who died last week of a flesh-eating bacteria three days after accidentally jamming her hand in a wheelchair while working at a nursing home.
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North Carolina gets about 125 reports of the invasive form of strep annually, and about 10 percent are fatal, she said.
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Sharon Bishop complained on Feb. 24 about a swollen thumb. She had jammed it at work and worried that she had dislocated it. David Bishop took her to Betsy Johnson Regional Hospital, where doctors gave her pain medication and sent her home.

The swelling got worse. By the morning of Feb. 27, her arm was twice as large as normal and looked like it would burst, David Bishop said. Fluid leaked from her elbow and wrist. She complained of terrific pain.

Dunn physician Abraham Oudeh diagnosed necrotizing fasciitis, an infection that destroys tissue.

Doctors at UNC Hospitals that evening tried to stop the spreading infection by amputating her arm at the clavicle and removing all the muscle and tissue around her left breast, torso and thigh in a futile effort to save her life.

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