A toilet-dwelling rat sent a Canadian man into organ failure and sepsis after sinking its teeth into his hand.
The 76-year-old man was trying
to fish the rat out of his toilet when the rodent bit two of his fingers.
He went to the emergency room
and received basic wound care and a tetanus booster and was sent home.
But 18 days later, the
septuagenarian was back in the ER. He was suffering from a number of symptoms
including fever, headaches and abdominal pain that had been ongoing for three
days, according to a report published in the Canadian Medical Association
Journal.
His heart rate was high, his
blood pressure low and his kidneys were damaged, according to medical tests. He
had signs of multi-organ dysfunction and sepsis and was admitted to the
intensive care unit.
While his bite wound had mostly
healed, doctors suspected it could have something to do with his deteriorating
condition.
They ran blood and urine tests
and found the man had leptospirosis, a bacterial infection that is often
transmitted to humans by animals like rats and can be fatal in rare, severe
cases.
The bacteria is found in the
urine of animals and doctors believe that the rat may have had a mouthful of
the contaminated urine when he bit the Canadian’s fingers, thus breaking the
skin for the bacteria to enter his body, according to the report.
The Canadian man was given
treatment, including antibiotics and steroids, and was released from the ICU
after three days.
More than 1 million cases of
leptospirosis are reported worldwide each year and nearly 60,000 of those end
in death.
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