fair use Link

Flesh-Eating Bacteria Killed Wisconsin Man

Infection Is Extremely Uncommon

MILWAUKEE, 7:19 p.m. EDT April 5, 2001 -- A Milwaukee man died Monday after a common bacteria entered his body, destroying it from the inside out.

Blas Garcia, 47, went to St. Luke's Hospital Sunday with pain and swelling in his arm that started Friday. He died Monday from necrotizing fasciitis, a tissue infection caused when group A streptococcus bacteria enters the body.

Group "A" Streptococcus bacteria can be routinely found in the throats and on the skin of members of the general population. It usually causes sore throats or skin infections, but in very rare cases it can cause the type of tissue death seen in necrotizing fasciitis. Blas was sent home from St. Luke's with painkillers, but his wife, Juanita Garcia, said that his pain grew worse throughout the night.

"I got scared because he said he couldn't breathe, so I looked at his hands and his hands were purple," Juanita said.

She took her husband to the hospital again. This time she said that doctors recognized the infection and amputated his arm, then his heart stopped beating.

"(The doctor said, 'I'm sorry, Mrs. Garcia, but he's not going to make it because the blood -- his blood -- was poisoned from the bacteria, (and) all his organs started to just shut down,'" she said.

Juanita is still in shock about her husband's death.

"He was a wonderful dad, he was a wonderful guy," she said. "He loved his kids, he loved his grandkids. Everybody liked my husband."

She never wants anyone to go through what her family is facing.

"Don't even wait, don't wait," she said. "Go if that arm starts to swell. Don't wait to go because you never know if that's what it is."

She wishes that she could have said goodbye.

"I'm sorry I didn't have the chance to say that I loved him," she said.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

Answers

Wow...Strep A on steroids, hope this one doesn't develop resistance to antibiotics. Horrible story.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001