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Jul 22, 2023 | 2:36 AM
A Texas man lost both his arms and part of his leg after being bitten once by a flea, family members said.
Michael Kohlhoff was rushed to a San Antonio emergency room last month after losing feeling in his toes and suffering from what his family initially believed were severe flu symptoms, his mother wrote. go fund me.
Shortly thereafter, the 35-year-old man went into septic shock and was rushed to the ICU.
Within 24 hours, Kohlhoff was on a ventilator, dialysis, antibiotics, vasopressors, and numerous intravenous treatments to keep him alive as his organs began to malfunction rapidly.
“By the end of June 20, I was told to call close relatives across the country to say goodbye,” her mother, Jeline Hardaway, wrote.
Kohlhoff’s brother Greg I told KENS5 His brother said, “I almost died once or twice.
“They were worried he was brain dead,” Gregg said.
After needing another 11 days of intensive medical assistance, Kohlhoff miraculously survived and was taken off the ventilator and sedatives on July 1, not without severe physical consequences.
Mr. Hardaway said Kohlhoff’s hands and feet developed dry gangrene as a result of treatment with vasopressors, one of the many drugs that saved his life.
The cause of Kofurov’s sepsis and rapid debility was identified as typhus, caused by a single flea bite.
“He was a very traumatized victim of one flea,” Hardaway said.
Doctors told the family that the type of type Kohlhoff had is extremely rare in the United States.
according to Centers for Disease Control and PreventionFlea-borne typhus occurs in tropical and subtropical climates worldwide, including the flea-infested areas of the United States: Southern California, Hawaii, and Texas.
“Untreated [typhus] It can cause serious illness and damage organs such as the liver, kidneys, heart, lungs and brain,” warns the CDC.
Usually people who get bitten by an infected flea see a doctor after finding swelling or a rash around the bite, but Greg said his brother didn’t show any symptoms until it was too late.
Kohlhoff’s gangrene is incurable and doctors were forced to amputate his hands and forearms and half of his leg earlier this week.
If he had waited another 48 hours, “he wouldn’t have made it,” says partner Alispah Massoud told KHOU11.
Kohlhoff is from Houston and only came to San Antonio to help care for his mother, who was recovering from foot surgery, according to her brother.
Kohlhoff is a volunteer, handyman, art lover, and part-time pet sitter, but his passion is tragically focused on his hands.
“Me and him have talked about it. It’s not your hands that do all these great things. It’s your heart,” Greg said to his brother.
“To do that, we have to find new ways.”
