Beware and Cautious when Entering the Water

[Dreampixels]

Everyone take heed and beware – Error on the side of Caution


Back in early July me and another fellow went crabbing and the trip has had life threatening results on my partner crabber.

Upon launching the boat my partner waded in the water not deeper then his knees . Just below his knee he had a very small hardly noticeable non bleeding wound.

The day after the trip the wound became sore with redness. The next day his leg hand become dark purple nearly black. He immediately went to the hospital and was admitted with the doctors telling him he is much sicker then he will ever know. We are talking a period of less then 72 hours from exposure.

They discovered a Flesh Eating Bacteria had entered is body via his small wound and now he has a Blood Infection and is in a fight to save his leg. All the skin has fallen off his leg and much of the tissue has been surgically removed in effort to remove the bacteria.

They have recently covered his leg with with Cadaver Skin to see if the infection is going to reinstate itself. Later if all goes well with the Cadaver skin they will do skin grafts with his own skin. However should the Bacteria have moved into the bone then they will need to remove his leg.

Needless to say seeing this course of events play out, I take even fly bites as seriously as a wound needing stitches when coming in contact with the water now. My medical kit will always be at first had and any scratch or wound shall be treated and disinfected even a fly bite.

All the doctors treating his wound agree that the bacteria most likely entered his body via his wound while he was in the water.

[Crabs n clams]

It makes you think. Just yesterday I was eating a sandwich on the boat after baiting up with chicken and thinking about cross contamination. I've done it many times and never got sick but will my luck run out? There are a lot of dangers out there. Just something to think about...Charlie

[Ravendave]

Upon launching the boat my partner waded in the water not deeper then his knees . Just below his knee he had a very small hardly noticeable non bleeding wound.

The day after the trip the wound became sore with redness. The next day his leg hand become dark purple nearly black. He immediately went to the hospital and was admitted with the doctors telling him he is much sicker then he will ever know. We are talking a period of less then 72 hours from exposure.

They discovered a Flash Eating Bacteria had entered is body via his small wound and now he has a Blood Infection and is in a fight to save his leg. All the skin has fallen off his leg and much of the tissue has been surgically removed in effort to remove the bacteria.

Wow Keary that is pretty serious.  I will say some prayers that your friend is ok.  Kevin needs to read this.  We were crabbing in the GP and we both got cut up on some sharp traps.   He had to jump in the water twice to fix some boat issues.  I think he said that it took awhile to heal.

[Dreampixels]

I found this on the subject - it is an interesting read.

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/necrotizing-fasciitis-flesh-eating-bacteria-topic-overview

[tattoo]

Sorry to hear that news . your friend is in our prayers.

[WIMPY]

Awhile back, somebody on this site had posted pic's of some open wounds and the infections that resulted from water born bacteria. Nasty,nasty stuff. You can easily pick up infection's like this just getting crab bit. To this day, we still put vasoline on leg and foot scrapes when clam tredding and wipe down with alcohol when back in boat.

[tugcapt]

Kerry, Hope your friend get better soon. Where were you crabbing when this happened?  There has been much talk around the harbor about bad bacteria levels.  We wash real good if we come into contact with ANY harbor water from North Point in while at work.

Here is an article about some of the tests. http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20100728/NEWS01/100728049/Chesapeake-Bay-swimming-holes-outdo-toilet-bowls-in-bacteria-count


This is one of the reasons I will never crab the Patapsco.

"Middle Branch Park, on the Patapsco River in Baltimore, revealed problems similar to Savage Park's. Its July 15 sample showed it had more than five times the safe level of enterococci bacteria for recreational use.

Like Savage Park, Middle Branch does not include a public beach, but it attracts fishers and crabbers to its three docks, including several on both dates News21 visited. It also serves as the headquarters for the Baltimore Rowing Club.

News21's sample in mid-July found 792 units of the bacteria per 100 ml, up from just 2 units in the dry weather sample.

After the rain, the samples from both Savage Park and Middle Branch Park had higher levels of the bacteria than those found in a toilet bowl in which feces had floated for four hours. The toilet had 268 units of the bacteria in the 100 ml sample."

[Dreampixels]

Mark we where near Kent Narrows - Good Hands Creek

[tugcapt]

Wow, you would think that area would be ok.  Like I said, I hope he gets better soon. I know someone that had a bad infection and it spread throughout the body fast and took months for recovery.  Just goes to show, it doesn't take much to change your life.

[fishbone]

I hope your friend is OK and has a speedy recovery.

My buddy had a similar issue, lived his whole life (over 50 years) on the water.
He contracted a marine micro-organism, doctors kept treating the symptoms not the cause, it took over 6 months to correctly diagnose the issue and treatment took another 2 months.

These things are rare, his case was 1 in 300,000 would catch it.

I had another friend get rheumatic fever from cleaning a deer, (poke by a broken bone) he nearly died, but recovered.

We ALL have to be careful!

[capt. ron]

That's scary.
 Yesterday I received may scratches, cuts and pinch wounds from the crabs and traps I ran.  Lake Pontchartrain has 7 different types of marine bacteria present in the water. I bait with catfish heads and get stabbed all the time. Some of my traps are 5 years old and the wire is rusty.  I'll grab a trap and the wire gets buried in my hand or finger.
 FYI  If you get a puncture wound (sounds crazy) use Vicks Vapor rub.  Clean the point of intrest with peroxide, gobb Vicks on it and wrap your finger with cotton and tape it up. You'll notice a difference overnight.  Guys around here thought I was crazy until they tried it but it works.  Don't know why but it does.

Ronnie

[Mr. Ray III]

My father had flesh eating bacteria on his leg years ago.  He was working on his boat, which was in the water, doing fiberglass repairs on the deck.  He swears it was from the fiberglass but even the doctors weren't sure what caused it.

He was hospitalized for 6 months, had 6 operations on his right leg, and was laid up with drain tubes in his leg for about a month after he got out.  A nurse came to the house a few times a week.  He almost lost his leg. 

He just woke up around 2 am and said I need to go to the hospital.  I don't remember him complaining of any soreness before hand.


Hope he recovers and does well.  I know, almost first hand, how serious, and dangerous it is.

[jefftoleft]

This is happening more and more offen in the bay I remember when we were kids if you had a cut if you would rub bay water on it it would heal right up. Not any more if you have a cut or any kind of wound and it gets bay water on it I put bleach on it right away I keep a small bottle of bleach in the boat at all times. Please be very careful if you come in contact with the water no matter where it is. DP I hope your friend gets better.

[R D]

Amazes me that y'all eat crabs and fish out of thoses waters and some people are worried about a little oil on seafood from the gulf   

[jack1747]

Amazes me that y'all eat crabs and fish out of thoses waters and some people are worried about a little oil on seafood from the gulf   

The water around the ESVA is especially Bad.  Folks get sick just walking by it.  Assateague is really bad this time of year.    

[jefftoleft]

The Gulf is just as bad in fact the first time I herd of this that is where it was but on the Texas side.

[mdjohn]

A microbe called Vibrio parahaemolyticus, common in warm coastal waters like the Gulf, thrives off of crude oil.  "You can feed it exclusively oil," Jay Grimes, a marine microbiologist at the University of Southern Mississippi, said of the Vibrio species.

When ingested by humans, usually from eating raw oysters, Vibrio and related organisms can cause cramps, nausea, and can sometimes be fatal.  More than 4,500 people are infected with the bacteria each year.

after they eat the oil - they will be hungary

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/07/will-oil-eating-bacteria-plague-the-gulf/

and then there is the fleash eaters

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread294572/pg1

they are everywhere there is saltwater

[DoubledareDan]

In our prayers as well. It is amazing how one's life can change so quickly... I know I got 6 or 8 cuts the last few days from baiting fishing lines for the family and taking off fish... plus several good crab bits. I do keep hand sanitiser on board and use it before eating... and sense I eat a lot I clean my hands a lot.

As for the chicken necks I like to bait at home, wash up or even take a quick shower, slip on some clean shorts and then go out. Of course with having to re-bait I use the hand sanitiser and I keep soap handy too.

Having said all that I think I will be even more diligent... especially with the boys. The nine year old likes to handle the crabs but I do make him wear gloves.

Thanks for this information as it is a blessing that your message will be headed and passed around.

Blessings on your friend and may Gods angles fortify him for his fight the fight he has ahead of him. 

[dantheman2929]

Mark we where near Kent Narrows - Good Hands Creek

I use to work that area for a utility locating company. I would go to the boat launches on my luch breaks and talk to the crabbers as they would come in! One day I stopped at Goodhand creek boat laucn and found hundreds of dead crabs and fish floating in the water and you could see more in the buches on the shore line. I called DNR and they took the report. Never heard of anything about it after that. Maybe a small alge bloom or something. Regardless that is where bacteria's thrive so they say...... I know it is 2 1/2 years later but could there be a connection ?

[rdbeard]

i keep a bottle of bleach and water 50-50 on the boat and rince any cuts from the days work right away.

[DoubledareDan]

Good idea... is not 50/50 a bit too strong though? I would think 10/90 would be effective.

[flounderpounder]

Thats what I need...I was letting crabs grab onto my hands the other night at the cookout....some actually cut thru the skin..lol  didnt feel a thing until sunday morning   Got to love puncture wounds you dont remember getting.

[saltysenior]

the sad part is,if you want to get one of these flesh eating diseases,that so little is known about curing,spend time in a hospital..............about the cleanest place in town..

[captaincrab55]

Just in...   Hot off the net...

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-health/20100809/US.MED.Eaten.Alive/

[DoubledareDan]

the sad part is,if you want to get one of these flesh eating diseases,that so little is known about curing,spend time in a hospital..............about the cleanest place in town..

Tell me about it a friend of ours gave birth in a hospital and came home... a few days later she was re-admitted with the disease... it ate half her cooter and all up at the site of the incision where they had to stitch her up after the birth.

As someone who has spent many days in Hospitals for everything from Crohn's, kidney stones, heart attack, shoulder surgery, appendix... I always say that they are no place to be when you are sick. I often wonder how I survived just the Hospital experience... or perhaps maybe I didn't...