Dog Bite Leads to Triple Amputation for Single Momthe daily dish
When Buster the Shih Tzu gave his owner a small bite while playing tug-of-war in May, she brushed it off, even letting her other dogs lick the bite. But the wound became seriously infected and as a result, Christie Caron, 49, has had three of her limbs amputated, according to the Daily Mail U.K.
The bite that Buster delivered became infected with Capnocytophaga canimorsus, a bacteria common in dog and cat saliva. Doctors are not sure if the bacteria came from Buster himself or one of Caron's other dogs that licked the wound, but three days after the bite, Caron went into septic shock and was hospitalized.
Caron was placed in an induced coma for six weeks. Due to a lack of blood flow caused by the sepsis, doctors were forced to amputate her left arm and both her legs. Her right hand also sustained serious damage and will require skin grafts.
Dogs bite 1 million Americans every year, and the chance of infection is between 3 and 20 percent, according to the Daily Mail, but in healthy adults Capnocytophaga canimorsus does not normally cause as serious a reaction as Caron has suffered.
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