Hi @johnbishop
I appreciate the welcome and the articles. With the news article, they weren’t sharing my mom’s case in Mobile for obvious reasons. The update occurred after I replied to a Facebook posting that was downplaying the severity of Vibriosis by lumping all kinds into their statistics rather than sharing what was actually affecting some in the area. Now the spin is to speak of June and July as the “summer cases”. We were on vacation in Dauphin Island from May 22nd through the 27th. It’s not as though the temperatures increased drastically over the next 5 days. I know that summer technically started June 21st this year, but people who reside in these areas refer to summer by the holidays of Memorial Day through Labor Day. Memorial Day was the 30th. A lady from the State of Alabama Health Department was calling and speaking with my mom while she was in the hospital for 12 days. They were conducting an investigation (very quietly) in the area at that time. We did not realize that this was occurring until she asked my mom about the way some fish she had eaten at a local restaurant had been prepared. My mom didn’t know the exact species. The lady informed her that she’d eaten Grouper. Even though all of this had occurred, and the Mayo Clinic had confirmed the initial culture, the results were not shared with the public. Cases in Louisiana and Florida became public first. Those states released warnings to the public, and then Alabama followed. That part has been a learning experience in itself to watch with how it unfolds.
With regards to the research, if it’s posted online using those keywords, I’ve probably read it over the last 2 1/2 months since we’ve been back home. I’ve even found a post from the Mayo Clinic’s Infectious Diseases on Twitter that detailed a treatment plan in the initial stages. That’s the most important part to treating this infection. One must get ahead of it aggressively. One must also be receiving treatment from an Infectious Diseases Specialist. The 12 days in the hospital were a setback rather than a help because the doctors were guessing. They even admitted that they didn’t know how to effectively treat the bacteria. Getting her out and transferred became the next priority. She started having more problems when she came home. I was spending most of the days researching. This is when I learned about this species of bacteria feeding on iron. My mom wasn’t taking iron in the hospital, but she resumed when she came home. She had been feeding it and not even realizing it because the doctors didn’t know it either.
This ordeal has been enough to make me have no desires to visit a beach again anytime soon. I do get the updates from the Infectious Disease Specialist and the wound care dr. It’s truly been one of those cases where it’s one step forward and 2 steps backwards. Thank you, again, for what you shared. I can’t express how truly grateful I am for your efforts!