Firefighter almost died...until God showed off

Firefighter regains consciousness after near death from septic infection

Times Union
Mike Goodwin
February 18, 2019

"Y'all keep asking about the hand: the surgeon is coming to look first thing tomorrow morning. It doesn't look pretty though. I'd be amazed if he didn't lose fingers. But God has been showing off all week so....." Josh Woodward

ALBANY - The Albany International Airport firefighter who nearly died from an out-of-control septic infection, regained consciousness and is aware of his surroundings, his wife wrote on Facebook.

"He's awake, aware, extubated, conscious, forming his own unique thoughts, maybe a little confused, in pain, very weak, vulnerable," Chelsea Woodward wrote Sunday of her husband Josh's slow recovery. ".... it goes on."

"He doesn't remember much," she continued, writing that he was having some post-traumatic stress disorder from the tracheal tube. "He is really down and frightened about the road ahead of him."

Still, Chelsea Woodward calls her husband's survival a miracle.
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Dental technicians inadvertently used unsterilized equipment on 45 Marines

Marines tested for infection after dental techs use unsterilized tools
Marine Corps Times
By Hope Hodge Seck
Staff Writer
January 24, 2014

Members of a Marine reserve unit were called in for an emergency blood draw in late January after officials discovered that some had undergone dental examinations with unsterilized instruments during a drill weekend.

A group of 101 Marines from the Headquarters and Service Company of 1st Battalion, 23rd Marines — a 4th Marine Division unit headquartered in Houston — underwent dental exams administered by technicians from the 4th Marine Logistics Group’s 4th Dental Battalion Jan. 10-11. A spokesman for Marine Forces Reserve, Col. Francis Piccoli, said officials believe dental technicians inadvertently used unsterilized equipment on 45 of the Marines.

Local news station KRGV reported that the exams happened at the unit’s Harlingen, Texas, depot on Jan. 11. Officials learned about the incident four days later, the station reported.

It’s unclear how the mistake involving the unsterilized equipment took place.

Since officials said they have no way of knowing which of the 101 Marines were examined with the unsterilized tools, the unit notified all of them, through their platoon commanders, about the incident and asked them to report for a blood draw Jan. 18.
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VA Uses More 'Last-Resort' Antibiotics

VA Uses More 'Last-Resort' Antibiotics
By Michael Smith
North American Correspondent
MedPage Today
Published: May 17, 2012

Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.

The use of "last resort" antibiotics by the nation's largest medical system has been increasing in recent years, a likely indication of a growing problem with drug-resistant pathogens.

Note that there is no comprehensive data about the use of the antibiotics or what pathogens are associated with their use.

The use of "last resort" antibiotics by the nation's largest medical system has been increasing in recent years, a likely indication of a growing problem with drug-resistant pathogens, researchers reported.

In 127 Veterans Affairs medical centers, the use of the recently approved tigecycline (Tygacil) rose four-fold over a 5-year period, according to Makoto Jones, MD, of the Veterans Affairs Salt Lake City Health Care System, and colleagues.

Over the same time, the use of polymyxins – antibiotics long out of favor because of uncertainty over toxicity and dosing -- also rose, although not as steeply, Jones and colleagues reported online in PLoS ONE.

The use of the drugs "probably indicates the presence or suspicion of problematic pathogens," the researchers argued. But despite that, there is no comprehensive data about the use of the medications or what pathogens are associated with their use, they added.
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Wounded face new foe: drug-resistant infections

Wounded face new foe: drug-resistant infections
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Sep 30, 2010 14:26:40 EDT
Aggressive tactics are being used against strains of drug-resistant infections that are creating new risks for combat-injured service members who survived the war but may not survive the recovery, military medical officials said Wednesday.

Called multi-drug resistant organisms, or MDROs, the infections “are not unique to the military” but are a “serious problem for the military,” said Dr. Jack Smith, acting deputy assistant defense secretary for health affairs responsible for clinical and program policy.

Smith and other military health officials testified before the House Armed Services Committee’s oversight and investigations panel.

The hearing was called to look at how the military was dealing with infection and whether more money was needed for military-specific research.

Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., the panel chairman, said he thought that given the implications of problems with treating combat-wounded service members, a case could be made for spending more money on research — but Smith did not ask for more.
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Wounded face new foe drug-resistant infections

Hampton VA patients alerted of infection complications from injections

Hampton VA patients alerted of infection complications from injections

Posted: Sep 6, 2008 01:24 AM EDT

Updated: Sep 6, 2008 01:24 AM EDT

PORTSMOUTH, VA. (WAVY.com) -- The Hampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center tells WAVY.com that its notified a group of patients, seen during the week of August 25-29, of "an increased risk of post-procedural infection."

The injections were given to relieve discomfort during an orthopedic procedure.

The matter is being investigated by the Hampton VA and the Veterans Health Administration to determine the exact nature of the infections.

All patients who received injections during the time frame noted above have been notified and given additional contact information should they have any questions.

Wanda Mims, Medical Center Director released the following statement:

"The health and safety of our veterans are of paramount importance. We regret the distress that our veterans may be experiencing as a result of this isolated incident. We will provide any necessary tests and follow up to those patients affected. Hampton VA Medical Center is thoroughly reviewing the cause and effect of this situation and is taking various precautions to address the matter."
http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=8962709&nav=23ii

Acinetobacter Alley:Did they cure it or bury it?

It's been a few months since the last report on this super bug came out. The question is, did they cure it or bury the reports on it? We have a lot more wounded since then and I doubt they are all free of this.

Deadly mystery disease follows troops home
Infections seen in military hospitals in Iraq spread to U.S.
Jia-Rui Chong, Los Angeles Times

Sunday, October 7, 2007


The young American Army medic would not stop bleeding.

He had been put on a powerful regimen of antibiotics by doctors aboard the hospital ship Comfort in the Persian Gulf. But something was wrong.

He was in shock and bleeding from small pricks where nurses had placed intravenous lines. Red, swollen tissue from an active bacterial infection was expanding around his abdominal wound. His immune system was in overdrive.

How odd, thought Dr. Kyle Petersen, an infectious disease specialist. He knew of one injured Iraqi man with similar symptoms and a few days later encountered an Iraqi teenager with gunshot wounds in the same condition.

Within a few days, blood tests confirmed that the medic and the two wounded Iraqis were infected with an unusual bacterium, Acinetobacter baumannii.

This particular strain had a deadly twist. It was resistant to a dozen antibiotics. The medic survived, but by the time Petersen connected the dots, the two Iraqi patients were dead.

It was April 2003, early in the Iraq war - and 41/2 years later, scientists still are struggling to understand the medical mystery.

The three cases aboard the Comfort were the first of a stubborn outbreak that has spread to at least five other American military hospitals, including Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and the Army's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

Hundreds of patients - the military says it has not tabulated how many - have been infected with the bacterium in their bloodstream, cerebrospinal fluid, bones or lungs. Many of them were troops wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan; others have been civilians infected after stays in military hospitals.

At least 27 people have died in military hospitals with Acinetobacter infections since 2003, although doctors are uncertain how many of the deaths actually were caused by the bacteria.

The rise in infections has been dramatic. In 2001 and 2002, Acinetobacter infections made up about 2 percent of admissions at the specialized burn unit at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. In 2003, the rate jumped to 6 percent, and then to 12 percent by 2005. Other military hospitals have reported similar levels.

In the early days of the war, there were so many infections in an intensive care unit on the Comfort that a nurse posted a sign: "Acinetobacter Alley." In two months, the bacterium was found in 44 of the 211 patients wounded in battle.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/07/MNEUSGV3A.DTL&feed=rss.news

Worrisome Infection in Wounded US Military

November 19, 2004 -- A bacterium named Acinetobacter baumannii is a relatively uncommon cause of infection, except among people with AIDS and other types of immune deficiency and in ICUs. Now there is a worrisome increase in the number of bloodstream infections due to this bacterium in US military hospitals where service members injured in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan are being treated.

Comments: During the Vietnam War, this bacterium was also the most common microorganism of its type (gram-negative bacteria) in traumatic wounds of the arms and legs, suggesting that environmental contamination of wounds is the likely source of the infection. This bacterium is common in both water and soil. Treatment of these infections can be difficult because the bacterium has intrinsic resistance to certain antibiotics and has acquired resistance to many others.

Everyone in Iraq and Afghanistan today faces risks not only of death and injuries but also severe life-threatening infections from this bacterium. If US military hospitals are having difficulty treating it, we cannot begin to imagine the situation for civilians injured and hospitalized in Iraq or Afghanistan. War brings with it the scourge of disease.
Barbara K. Hecht, Ph.D.Frederick Hecht, M.D.

Medical Editors, MedicineNet.com

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=40718

Hundreds of acinetobacter infections a year with wounded soldiers

Insurgents in the Bloodstream
Proceedings Capt. Chas Henry (Ret.) February 22, 2008
"It's why I lost my leg, so it sucks."

The assessment, from a 22-year-old Marine toughing out physical therapy on two prosthetic limbs, is laconic, matter-of-fact. Sgt. David Emery lost one leg in February 2007 when a suicide bomber assaulted the checkpoint near Haditha, Iraq, where he and fellow Marines stood guard. Military surgeons were forced to remove his remaining leg when it became infected with acinetobacter baumannii-a strain of highly resistant bacteria that since U.S. forces began fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan has threatened the lives, limbs, and organs of hundreds wounded in combat.

"They could have saved it," says Emery. "They had a rod in it, but then the bacteria was in too bad and my white blood cell count was up to 89,000-and they told my mom on a Friday that they had to take it."

Emery's mother recalls that the hazard was not confined to her son's limbs.

"He ended up getting it in his stomach," says Connie Emery, "and they tried to close his stomach back up, but when they did, the stitches ended up pulling away because the infection was taking over."

An Army infectious disease physician says the germ has spread rapidly since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began. "Prior to the war, we were seeing one to two cases of acinetobacter infection per year," remembers Lt. Col. Kimberly Moran, deputy director for tropical public health at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.

"Now that's much different. We've had hundreds of positive cultures over the last four years."

And the toll has been serious, observes Army Col. Glenn Wortmann, acting chief of infectious disease at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. "Of the infectious disease problems that have come out of the conflict," notes Dr. Wortmann, "it is the most important complication we've seen."
go here for the rest
http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,162552,00.html