Every year or two or three, there’s a shark bite somewhere in the region that captures the nation’s attention and focuses it on Galveston. Something similar is taking place now, except this time the creatures doing the biting are much smaller. A man and his family are struggling with a life-threating infection and asking for prayers as they cope with the ordeal. The story is making headlines across the country, but here you can read about it in his hometown newspaper, the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel.
His wife mentions the wonderful care he’s getting, and as it turns out, UTMB may be one of the best places to be with this sort of infection. Apparently the damage from ”flesh eating bacteria”—and the wound healing that has to take place to overcome it—share a lot in common with major burn trauma. Anyone who’s been around knows our burns program is one of the best in the world. In fact, Good Morning America is on campus this evening talking to two of our docs, one a expert in the bacteria and one a expert in treating this sort of microbial assault. It’s scheduled to air Friday morning. If they post a webcast, I’ll link to it.
Updated: Here’s the clip http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3397437