Vibrio vulnificus can enter a wound and damage blood vessels, causing plasma to leak into surrounding tissues. The immune response attempts to stop the leakage by triggering clotting, which cuts off blood flow and leads to necrosis. The infection can progress to shock, sepsis, and multi-organ failure, with bloodstream infections proving deadly at least half the time. A case involves an elderly man who scraped his arm while checking a crab trap and developed rapidly worsening purple and red discoloration, swelling, and fluid under the skin. He was treated urgently with transport to a shock trauma center, where surgery was expected and doctors assessed whether his life could be saved.
"When V. vulnificus enters a wound, it damages blood vessels, causing them to leak plasma into surrounding tissues. The immune system tries to protect the body by calling in clotting cells to halt the leaking; in the process, the cells cut off blood flow, prompting flesh to become necrotic. The bacteria can cause shock, sepsis, and multi-organ failure. Infections that reach the bloodstream prove deadly at least fifty per cent of the time."
"As Spear reached in, however, he scraped his arm on some metal, drawing blood. He wasn't worried; he'd been scratched many times before. But, in the hours that followed, Spear's arm began to turn violent shades of purple and red. His wife, Lea, thought it looked like he'd been badly burned. Soon his arm swelled up-liquid appeared to be pooling under the skin-and he rushed to his local emergency room."
"A medical helicopter arrived within twenty minutes. Spear was flown to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center, in Baltimore. There was no question that he would need surgery. Rather, his doctors wondered if they would be able to save his life. Antibiotics on their own are of limited use ag"
Read at The New Yorker
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