A dog’s signs of affection can sometimes turn into a nightmare… Marie Trainer, an American living in Ohio, left her limbs there. The saliva of his dog, a German Shepherd puppy, caused him a sepsis requiring the amputation of his hands and legs.
On May 11, this 54-year-old woman was returning from a vacation in Punta Cana with her husband when she began to suffer from back pain and nausea, says CNN. Her body temperature having suddenly increased before falling, she was hospitalized in the emergency room. Marie Trainer quickly falls unconscious and her skin quickly changes color turning purplish red and evolves into gangrene.
The woman wakes up nine days later in her hospital bed with a frightening sight: her hands and legs have been amputated. The doctors explain to him that they discovered only seven days after his arrival at the hospital that his sepsis was not due to a tropical disease contracted during his journey but rather by the kisses of his dog. The rare infection is linked to the bacterium capnocytophaga canimorsusprobably transmitted when the puppy licked an unhealed wound from its owner.
Naturally hosted in the oral flora of certain dogs or catsthis germ can be transmitted to humans by the bite or skin lesion licking. The germ very rarely causes disease in humans. It occurs in people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and people whose spleen has been removed, CNN explains.
In these rare cases, the infection, carried by this bacterium, can be fatal for the infected person.
“I’m ready to move on”
Marie Trainer was saved in extremis. The infection had quickly spread to his nose, ears, limbs and part of his face. No fewer than eight surgeries were performed on the patient to stop the infection. Today she is closely followed by the medical team. She will soon be released from the hospital to go to a rehabilitation center where she will learn to use her prostheses. His medical expenses were partially funded through an online fundraiser that raised $20,000 (17,859 euros).
Despite this ordeal, Marie Trainer remains positive: “I’m so ready to move on. I want to go home, I want to go back to work,” she told CNN.
Read also
- Sepsis: rapid test could save thousands of lives
- Following a prostate examination, he undergoes a triple amputation.
- In Ivory Coast, an epidemic of yellow fever is added to dengue fever
