The Army's medical treatment/evacuation system is contaminated with a super bug

[thewayne]

Man, this is tragic. Guy gets pretty seriously blown up in Iraq, they stabilize him in the field, further stabilize him in Germany, ship him home, and he dies of a bacterial infection. On October 17 he was given a day pass and went to Walmart with his mom and bought her a purse, on the 22nd he was brain dead and taken off life support.

"The surgeons, nurses, medics, and pilots of the evacuation chain have saved thousands of lives. Soldiers wounded in Vietnam were six weeks of transit time away from US hospitals, and one out of every four of them died. (edit: now soldiers are a week away from getting to Bethesda) By contrast, a soldier's odds of surviving battle injuries in Iraq are nine out of 10. Unfortunately, this remarkable advance in battlefield logistics has also resulted in an increase in the number of traumatically injured patients who are particularly susceptible to infections during their recovery. In Gadsden's case, from the moment he was carried into the Ibn Sina, the injured marine was in the crosshairs of an enemy he didn't even know was there."

http://www.wired.com/news/wiredmag/0,72532-0.html

Comments

[apostate-96.livejournal.com]

I'd also read an article about a variant of it that kills in something like 24 hours through essentially rotting the lung tissue....something like necrotizing pneumonia.

I guess Nature has to keep us on our toes. I can't help thinking a threatening telegram would be nicer, though....