Flesh eating bacteria

Boy survives bout with `flesh-eating' bacteria

Associated Press

Saturday, March 18, 2000

Janesville -- A 9-year-old boy afflicted with what has been called "flesh-eating bacteria" returned to school this week afte fighting off the disease that first appeared in early January.

"The kids were so glad to see him," said Sue Masterson, principal at Monroe Elementary School. "They hugged him. They clapped for him. `Gerald's back!' "

Gerald Mackey survived a bout with the rare condition known to doctors as necrotizing fasciitis. Its nickname is not entirely accurate, doctors say.

The Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria don't actually eat flesh, said physician William Craig, an infectious disease specialist at University Hospital in Madison. But the germs and the body's reaction to them cut off the blood supply to the tissue, which then decays and dies.

The bacteria are common, the same ones that cause strep throat, Craig said.

Gerald's symptoms began Jan. 1 when he came home after visiting his father in North Dakota. He said his ears hurt and started running a temperature.

His mother, Michelle Mackey, took him to the hospital emergency room and was told he probably had a common virus. But when Gerald woke up Jan. 11, Jen Potter, Mackey's partner, spotted a walnut- sized lump on the boy's neck. She called for an appointment with their physician, Mark Boettcher at Riverview Clinic.

Boettcher immediately had Gerald admitted to Mercy Hospital and put him on a broad-spectrum antibiotic, Mackey said, adding that she credits his action with saving Gerald's life.

By the next morning, the infection had raced up to Gerald's face and down to his chest.

Doctors sent Gerald to University Hospital in Madison, where he had surgery to drain the abscess in his neck. Doctors used surgery and antibiotics to fight the infection, with Gerald sometimes on a ventilator, unable to breathe well on his own.

The first week of February, doctors said he was out of danger and sent him home. Doctors pronounced Gerald clear of infection last week.

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