Fatal Animal Bite

[child_of_fay]

Story Setting: Modern Day London

Details: My character’s family member bitten on the right forearm by an animal. The bite is very deep and went to the bone. The plan is that the wound later causes her to die due to sepsis (blood poisoning).

What I'm Looking For:
·       I assumed a wound like this would require surgery and maybe a hospital stay

Comments

[sirriamnis]

Does it have to be sepsis? If you leave her in the hospital, she could contract antibiotic resistant MRSA easily.

But even for a bite that goes to the bone, unless she lost a LOT of blood, they are unlikely to keep her for more than a 24 hour observation after corrective surgery (tendons, ligaments, etc), at least in the US, I am not sure about standards in UK hospitals.

[sirriamnis]

Unless there's substantial ligament/tendon damage, odds are good she'd just be bandaged with a sling, possibly a brace.

[keaalu]

I don't know if these might help? I use them at work if I want to quickly find out about a condition.

http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/septicaemia
http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/Bites-Human-and-Animal.htm

[openidwouldwork]

Does the bite have to be deep and go to the bone? She's much more likely to die of sepsis if it's just a 'normal' bite, a cat just snapped at the ball of her thumb for example, some penetration, little bleeding, no major pain to begin with... and they just patch it up and leave it to fester, and then there is no time to actually go to a dr. with a little thing like that, it's all covered by a little bandaid, no problem, and yeah, it hurts, but dumpig some iodine on it 'later' will do, and ...

Yes, I've seen this happen, not to the point of death, but to almost losing the thumb.

[xianghua]

This, exactly- and it's more likely with cats than dogs (cat mouths just carry more bacteria that is problematic for humans)

[sleightly]

Yes! My mother lost a part of her thumb due to a very minor injury that she didn't take care of (she was six or seven at the time).

[eglantine_br]

Often, with bites human and other animal, they do not stitch or close the wound, at least not right away. They do not want to close all the bacteria in there.

Also cat bites are very deep and small, they don't bleed much. Perfect for nasty things growing.

[quatorze]

Actually over the past six months there have been three cases in Finland where a minor dog bite has turned very dangerous, in one case even lethal. Apparently there is this rather rare bacterium that lives in the mouth of dogs. The people in question have been basically healthy adults with no underlying conditions to make things worse, and this infection has led to all kinds of complications including that their kidneys have stopped working.

Also, things are more likely go badly wrong with a smaller, apparently harmless bite because it's so easy to overlook, much easier than a big deep bite that will force the person to seek medical help.

In my experience bite wounds are not stitched in general, because that would just help ensure that any dirt or bacteria remain in the wound instead of oozing out with any discharge.

[quatorze]

Had to dig up more info: the bacterium is called Capnocytophaga canimorsus, and it lives in the mouths of cats and dogs, however NOT all of them -- according to my source about one in every five dogs have it. There's no way to find out beforehand if an animal is a carrier, and it doesn't infect all people who get bites.

Still quoting my (medical) source, some 5 to15 % of dog bites get infected with some bactera, whereas the figure for cat bites is 40 to 80 %, and that's why cat bites should always be treated with antibiotics early on. So this supports the suggestion that if you want your character to die of a dog bite, don't make the bite too severe and dramatic to start with!