![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Song-Kow-225x300.jpg\" "\\"Song-Kow\\"")
A deep\u00a0scar runs\u00a0across Song Kow’s chest, from shoulder to shoulder.<\/p>\nWritten by Frank Gluck<\/p>\n
A deep\u00a0scar runs\u00a0across Song Kow’s chest, from shoulder to shoulder.<\/p>\n
The wound, resulting from surgeries to purge him of a \u201cflesh-eating\u201d infection that coursed through his body last fall, will be a permanent reminder of just how close he came to dying.<\/p>\n
It started with a sore throat. And no one thought anything of it until it was very nearly too late.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the doctors were telling me, \u2018You\u2019re real lucky,\u2019\u201d said Kow, a 65-year-old\u00a0Lehigh Acres\u00a0restaurant owner. \u201cI didn\u2019t know that I was that serious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kow is now fully on the mend, thanks to an attentive staff at a Lee\u00a0Memorial Health System\u00a0walk-in clinic and months of antibiotic treatment and surgeries at Lee Memorial Hospital.<\/p>\n
But the case, one of a handful of such infections\u00a0Southwest Florida\u00a0hospitals see any given year, is a stark example of how quickly a dangerous bug can take hold of an otherwise healthy person.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember him looking so sick that even the emergency room doctor told me, \u2018I don\u2019t even know if this guy\u2019s going to make it,\u2019\u201d said\u00a0Dr. Manuel Revuelta, an infectious disease specialist for Lee Memorial Health System who treated Kow. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t take that long for you to go from a sore throat to being sick to being septic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Revuelta said several species of microorganisms commonly found in the human body, including\u00a0Streptococcus anginosus, caused the infection.<\/p>\n
While these bacteria commonly produce only mild illnesses, they can turn aggressive in patients with chronic illnesses or weakened immune systems. In rare cases, the infections produce what medical experts call\u00a0necrotizing fasciitis\u00a0(meaning the death of tissue). It’s more commonly known as a “flesh-eating” infection.<\/p>\n
Revuelta said Kow was generally healthy and is not sure why it happened in this case. Sometimes, it just does, he said. Such infections are fatal in about 1 in 5 cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just has to be the wrong bug at the wrong time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Any number of bacteria can cause such flesh-killing infections, the most common of which is A Streptococcus, also known as group A strep, according to the\u00a0Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Group A strep is responsible for at least 650 cases of necrotizing fasciitis in the United States every year, though experts say that’s likely a conservative estimate.<\/p>\n
Infections are not contagious and usually happen when bacteria enter through broken skin.<\/p>\n
In Kow\u2019s case, doctors believe the bacteria\u2019s origin was his own throat. They are not sure how the infection got deep inside his neck and muscle tissue, though Revuelta suspects Kow\u2019s smoking may have played a role.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes the stuff in your throat gets into the soft tissue of the neck and crawls down and, in this case, causing necrotizing fasciitis,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen it goes outside the throat, once it gets\u00a0into the skin and soft tissues, it is nasty.\u201d<\/p>\n
A medical mystery<\/p>\n
Kow began feeling poorly around Thanksgiving last year. His symptoms seemed relatively harmless: a sore throat, some coughing and a low-grade fever.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never was thinking about going to the hospital emergency (room) or to call an ambulance,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cI didn\u2019t think it\u2019s that serious.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a couple of days, it was clear that over-the-counter remedies weren\u2019t working. He went to the emergency room at Lehigh Regional Medical Center, which prescribed antibiotics and cough medicine.<\/p>\n
It was soon obvious that was not working either. The next day, after driving to pick up his wife, he suddenly could not remember how to get back to his home, a place he\u2019d lived for 20 years.<\/p>\n
The following morning, they went to a Lee Memorial Health System walk-in clinic. He filled out the paperwork describing his symptoms and waited for his name to be called.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even get into the (exam) room, because the doctor is waiting in the hallway,\u201d Kow said. \u201cAnd he told me, \u2018We\u2019re going to call an ambulance. You\u2019re going to the hospital right now.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Slow healing process<\/p>\n
Doctors immediately put Kow in Lee Memorial Hospital’s intensive care unit and treated him with antibiotics.<\/p>\n
Surgeries removed the dead tissue from his neck, shoulder and chest. Doctors performed a skin graft using skin from Kow’s right thigh. His children flew in from out of town, and his family rarely left his side at the hospital, medical staff said.<\/p>\n
It was touch and go. But Kow had no idea.<\/p>\n
He only remembers a haze of strange dreams and periodic wakefulness, usually at 3 a.m., he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never knew it was that serious,” he said. “I thought I was just going to the hospital for a couple days and go home.\u00a0In my mind, I just (caught)\u00a0a cold.”<\/p>\n
Kow spent 47 days in the hospital. He continued taking antibiotics for another two weeks after returning home. He also underwent a half dozen sessions in a\u00a0hyperbaric oxygen chamber, which uses a pressurized,\u00a0oxygen-rich atmosphere to help infected wounds to heal more quickly.<\/p>\n
Kow said he now mostly feels fine. He\u2019s resumed working at his restaurant, though only part-time now. He said he still has trouble walking with good posture and fully raising his right arm, the lingering effect from infection-related scarring in his shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cActually, he\u2019s doing a lot better than I thought he\u2019d be doing after recovering from an infection like that,\u201d said\u00a0Dr.\u00a0Jeremy Tamir, wound care and hyperbaric medicine\u00a0specialist.<\/p>\n
What’s the lesson from Kow’s experience? Doctors say it’s important to not neglect serious illnesses or wounds. But they say no one should worry unnecessarily about a cough or fever.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have a sore throat, a fever and cough a little bit, that\u2019s normal,\u201d Tamir said. \u201cBut if it\u2019s the same thing and you can\u2019t walk or you\u2019re disoriented \u2014 that\u2019s weird and we don\u2019t usually see something like that. So something\u2019s wrong. Immediately seek medical attention.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Written by Frank Gluck A deep\u00a0scar runs\u00a0across Song Kow’s chest, from shoulder to shoulder. The wound, resulting from surgeries to purge him of a \u201cflesh-eating\u201d infection that coursed through his… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39199"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}