This May Be The Grossest Eye Pic Ever—but the Cause is What’s Truly Horrifying
Freeman writes:
A generally healthy 63-year-old man in the New England area went to the hospital with a fever, cough, and vision problems in his right eye. His doctors eventually determined that a dreaded hypervirulent bacteria-which is rising globally-was ravaging several of his organs, including his brain.
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At the hospital, doctors took X-rays and computed tomography (CT) scans of his chest and abdomen. The images revealed over 15 nodules and masses in his lungs. But that's not all they found. The imaging also revealed a mass in his liver that was 8.6 cm in diameter (about 3.4 inches). Lab work pointed toward an infection, so doctors admitted him to the hospital
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On his third day, he woke up with vision loss in his right eye, which was so swollen he couldn't open it. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed another surprise: There were multiple lesions in his brain.
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In a case report in this week's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors explained how they solved the case and treated the man.
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There was one explanation that fit the condition perfectly: hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae or hvKP.
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An infection with hvKP-even in otherwise healthy people-is marked by metastatic infection. That is, the bacteria spreads throughout the body, usually starting with the liver, where it creates a pus-filled abscess. It then goes on a trip through the bloodstream, invading the lungs, brain, soft tissue, skin, and the eye (endogenous endophthalmitis). Putting it all together, the man had a completely typical clinical case of an hvKP infection.Still, definitively identifying hvKP is tricky. Mucus from the man's respiratory tract grew a species of Klebsiella, but there's not yet a solid diagnostic test to differentiate hvKP from the classical variety.
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it was too late for the man's eye. By his eighth day in the hospital, the swelling had gotten extremely severe
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Given the worsening situation-which was despite the effective antibiotics-doctors removed his eye.
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