Saturday, May 31, 2025

Healthy Man Goes Camping -- Lands in ICU for 40 Days

An otherwise-healthy 52-year-old office worker showed up to a hospital emergency department in Buenos Aires with an unshakable fever he developed the week before. Besides the high temperature, he seemed fine. So, after testing negative for COVID-19, doctors sent him home with supportive care. But the fever didn't go away. In the week that followed, things got worse. He developed nausea, stomach pain, and diarrhea. He also started having trouble breathing. He then went back to the hospital.

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You may be familiar with it from having not died from yellow fever or Marburg or hantavirus.

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-- April Alvarez (@411bee.bsky.social) April 30, 2025 at 8:00 PM

Comments

More from the article ...

... He was admitted to the intensive care unit. There, he was quickly intubated and put on mechanical ventilation. Then, his cardiovascular system started to fail. He went into severe shock. His kidneys shut down, and doctors started dialysis. He was soon heavily sedated on fentanyl and other drugs while machines kept him alive. The case and the path to his diagnosis was published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. ...

Diagnostic challenge

The man's medical history offered few clues as to what could be going on. He was generally healthy and worked in an office without any risky occupational exposures. He had a history of gallstones and a recent root canal"nothing obviously concerning. He had been camping recently in a rural area of Chascoms, south of Buenos Aires. But he reported no insect bites, contact with rodents, or other exposures.

Lab results showed that his blood had abnormally high concentrations of red and white blood cells, and low levels of platelets. He tested negative for a slew of infections, including COVID-19 (again), influenza, HIV, dengue, and the bacterial blood infection leptospirosis.

Computed tomography (CT) scans of his lungs showed more ground-glass opacities as well as a "halo sign," a ------ on scans that sometimes signals invasive fungal infections. There were also signs of lung collapse and fluid buildup (edema).

It was a diagnostic challenge, and doctors began reviewing the list of possibilities that could match his condition. ...



#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-05-29 11:18 PM

Well not in the US so he won't face medical bankruptcy over it.

#2 | Posted by Nixon at 2025-05-30 08:22 AM

#2: Yup. And "medical bankruptcy" is a term that is generally unknown outside the US. Argentinians are doing better than Americans in terms of health care:

Around half of Argentina's residents make use of its public health services, which provide free hospital, medical, dental, and palliative care as well as free rehab, medical transport, and prosthetics. The only pay contributions required are for everyday prescriptions and chronic conditions. Access to this universal care, regardless of your residency status, is all great news if you're not in a hurry. The downside is that even though the quality of care can be good, waiting lists for public healthcare can be frustratingly long, which is why so many Argentinians and the majority of expats seek their healthcare from other sectors.
Source:
internationalliving.com

#3 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2025-05-30 12:21 PM

EVERYONE else is doing better.

#4 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2025-05-30 12:43 PM

Has RFK blamed it on the man's bad humours yet?

#5 | Posted by johnny_hotsauce at 2025-05-30 01:41 PM

"a ------ on scans"

------ got censored?

#6 | Posted by YAV at 2025-05-30 01:48 PM

One thing is for sure; if he's that sick it's definitely not COVID 19.

#7 | Posted by visitor_ at 2025-05-31 12:30 PM

----- got censored?
#6 | Posted by YAV

Watch your mouth!

I'm pretty sure that the bleeper on this site doesn't speak English as a second, third, or fourth language.

And that's why I can't ascribe any quotes to Mark Twain [Tuh-Wayne] (Samuel Clemens).

#8 | Posted by censored at 2025-05-31 06:03 PM


@#1 ... It was a diagnostic challenge, and doctors began reviewing the list of possibilities that could match his condition. ... ...

More from the article ...

... Diagnosis

There was one other possibility that seemed to tick all the boxes: fever, gastrointestinal symptoms, low oxygen saturation, pulmonary edema, and shock -- a hantavirus infection.

Hantaviruses are RNA viruses that infect rodents worldwide. They typically cause asymptomatic, chronic infections in the animals, which spread the virus widely into their environments through their urine, feces, and saliva. Humans get infected when virus particles from rodent-contaminated areas are stirred up into the air and inhaled or through direct contact with the virus via the eyes, nose, mouth, or cuts.

In humans, the viral infection is anything but asymptomatic. While the disease mechanism isn't entirely understood, the virus appears to be able to modulate immune responses in humans, causing blood vessels and capillaries in various places in the body to start leaking plasma. This leads to fluid building up in the lungs (the pulmonary edema) and systemic circulatory collapse.

A cardiopulmonary hantavirus infection typically has four stages: the incubation period, which can last up to 45 days after virus exposure; a prodromal phase of up to 12 days, which is marked by fever, fatigue, and pains; the cardiopulmonary phase, where breathing trouble, low oxygen saturation, and shock can develop; then, if you make it, the fourth stage, in which respiratory symptoms improve, but there's lingering fatigue and the kidneys make abnormally large amounts of urine.

Haunting risks

There is no specific treatment for hantavirus; medical care is mostly supportive. ...




#9 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-05-31 06:20 PM

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