You never know what’s around the next corner. I knew Jackie Clay’s 16-year-old son, David, was sick but didn’t realize just how sick until I got off the phone with Jackie. David had a mild strep throat July 4th that entered his blood stream and lodged in his left arm. By July 5th he was undergoing surgery at St. Luke’s Hospital in Duluth, Minnesota, to try and save the arm. An Infectious Disease Specialist at the hospital told Jackie that had they waited one more day it could have cost David his life. I don’t know what type of strep it was, but Jackie said they described it as a "flesh eating bacteria." David is now home with 37 staples in his arm, 14 stitches in his hand, and an IV catheter in his chest under his collar bone with a computerized pouch attached to his belly that pumps medicine into him every four hours. Jackie said David had complained of a mild sore throat before driving himself to his brother Bill’s house near Carlton, Minnesota, for some 4th of July fun. However, he became sick quickly and his hand began to swell badly. Bill took him to a local hospital, and after consultation by phone with the Infectious Disease Specialist in Duluth, they rushed him by ambulance to St. Luke’s. He is out of the woods now, but will wear the catheter for three weeks. Jackie and her family have had a rough couple of years. It’s time for the pendulum to swing back and give them some luck. Jackie said she and David have a week’s worth of doctors visits ahead of them, but she’ll be ready to launch her weblog then, at which time she’ll fill in the details of David’s ordeal.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 15th, 2007 at 1:00 am and is filed under Publishing BHM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.