WEBVTT - How Flesh-eating Bacteria Work 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.480 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:16.400 from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:19.160 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and with me is always 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:23.279 this Charles W. Chuck and Bryant. Uh. He's given me 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:25.600 the A O K symbols, So we're all set to go. 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:28.120 Let me have a bowlful of dinosaurs in front of us. 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:32.280 Pants are off? Pants are off? Mike's are on? Yes, 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:35.000 that should be our motto, all of them should be. 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:39.479 That's just great on a T shirt. But um, the 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:43.199 the all of our open wounds have been treated according 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:47.400 to the stuff by step process included in this article. Yeah, 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:51.559 did you read that sidebar? It's gruesome. Yeah, And you 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:53.920 know what this is like. This kind of thing can 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:55.880 strike fear into you when it's in the news, which 0:00:55.880 --> 0:01:00.320 it has been lately in Georgia and nationwide. But um, 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.200 it's rare and we can't say that enough true, So 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:08.119 don't freak out and don't start slathering yourself with antibacterial 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:12.679 gel and um. To the writer's credit, it is pointed 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:15.440 out in this article it's like five cases of this 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:19.600 a year worldwide, right, I didn't get that either way 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:24.800 still even in the US now and like maybe and Dora, 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:29.840 that'd be huge yea. Um, but chuck, after researching this 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:38.000 plushaming bacteria scares out of you exactly. Yeah, we can't 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:40.120 beep any longer. It's sad you just did. Man, you 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:44.120 just found a work around said beep. So that's not 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:47.000 the same thing. Yeah, it's it's pretty scary because it's 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:52.840 um silent and it can the silent killer, it can 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:56.600 creep up on you. And in the case of Amy Copelan, 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:59.480 who will get too sadly like she was going to 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:02.400 the hospital for three days before they diagnosed it and 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:05.000 by that time it was too late, too too late, 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.120 because she survived obviously. But yeah, people, I was reading 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.079 an article about her and she's just like tough as nails. 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:13.959 They said, like, we're gonna have to amputate your leg, 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:16.600 and she said, like, let's do this. That's what she said. 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:21.200 She couldn't even talk. She mouthed it far braver than me. 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.480 I would have been, like, let's end this, right example, 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:28.160 she wouldn't plug me right. Yeah, I heard now that 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:29.800 she's up in about the first thing she did was 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:32.640 take like a half gallon shot of Scotch and punch 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:36.359 out at doctor just for fun. Alright, so we'll get 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:41.440 to her tragic but inspiring story, okay, um, I was 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:43.480 going to use her as an intro. Go ahead, then, 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.040 all right, so I get to it right now, Amy Copeland. 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:49.919 She's Um twenty four. She's a Georgia lady, um, and 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:51.960 she was on a zip line at a friend's house 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:54.440 and fell off. I don't know if the zip line 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:57.080 broke or if she like go or whatever, but it 0:02:57.160 --> 0:02:59.040 was it was a malfunction. It wasn't. It was over 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:03.520 like a raveni creak over some brackish water. And in 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:07.440 brackish water, actually in all fresh water, there is a 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:14.680 bacteria called aromonous hydrophilia or a hydrophilia, and it's everywhere. Normally, 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:17.880 if you ingest a little bit of this, you it's 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:22.520 through swallow water and it gives you the poops. That's it. 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:26.120 The reason why just diarrhea is because you have whole 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:30.160 colonies of bacteria and antibodies in your stomach that are 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:34.440 designed specifically to take on a hydrophilia and put smack 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.520 down on it. It's part of your immune system, right, thankfully. 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.960 The thing is with Amy Copeland, she had a gash 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:45.240 in her leg from when she fell and the bacteria 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:48.640 got in that way, and that is a whole different 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:51.640 host of problems. Exactly. Your body is not used to 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:56.560 fending off bacteria through wounds, and there are certain types 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.960 of bacteria which are generally known as flesh eating bacteria 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:06.440 that basically mounts the largest, most vicious, virulent campaign of 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.680 any bacteria around in your human body. This is what 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:11.600 I didn't quite get though, because you did this part 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:16.200 as additional research, which I appreciate, but I'm not quite sure. 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.880 Is it a dummy attack is going on? You want 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:22.000 to get into this? This is how flush eating bacteria. 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:23.559 I mean, we might as well go ahead and tackle 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:25.800 this and then we'll finish up Amy story then get 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:30.359 into it. Okay, So um, what happens? What happens? This 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:35.520 the bacteria which is again a a hydrophilia. It's everywhere 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:38.520 and where our bodies are used to it strep the 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:45.000 same group a strep. Yeah, that's what gives a strep throat. 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:49.160 It's everywhere of people are carriers, right, These things are 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:51.680 everywhere and normally when they get into our body through 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:53.920 normal channels. Our body knows how to ward it off. 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:57.039 When they come in through a wound, you have potentially 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:02.720 big trouble. Um and these bacteria are capable of producing 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:09.960 um toxins. There's entero toxins, which are cytotoxins, meaning like 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:13.240 they directly go and like kill cells, they like weaken 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:15.760 the membrane or something like that. So um they can 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:19.360 go and attack tissues. And then another thing that they 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:25.840 might express genetically is um exotoxins. Right, these are the 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:28.560 ones where if you if you have a bacteria that 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:35.040 expresses exotoxins, No that I thought that prompts the immune response. 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:38.200 It does. The problem is that these bacteria are are 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:43.160 prompts are setting off almost it seems like purposefully an 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:47.200 immune response from your T cells, but it's too big 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:51.440 and this huge response comes about and it's like this big, lumbering, 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:54.479 clumsy response from your T cells. So your T cells 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:58.320 are going haywire because this basically dummy attack has been 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:01.000 launched by this bacteria to this rack the T cells. 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:02.960 So this is what I don't get. Are they are 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:05.799 the T cells attacking the wrong thing. The T cells 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:09.920 aren't attacking anything. The T cells going on high alert signal, 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:14.479 the production of cytokines, which are like signals. They're like 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:18.200 triggers like histamines are. They're an immune response trigger. Cytokines 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:23.040 are the cytokines In turn, UM overproduced or over excite 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:27.440 macrophages and those things go and like eat cell detritus 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:33.920 or detritus. Actually listen to the pronunciation actually detritus okay, 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:37.800 so eats cell detritus. So they're going, hey wire and 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:41.919 then um, last, but not least, they promote the release 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:46.000 of free radicals, which normally go and target bacteria. But 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:53.560 in this huge undirected immune response, bacteria has purposefully triggered UM. 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:56.000 The free radicals are attacking all this tissue. So you 0:06:56.120 --> 0:07:01.400 have cytotoxic um in taro talk sense that the bacteria 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:04.880 is producing directly, and then it's also indirectly affecting this 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:08.479 healthy tissue by promoting the release of free radicals. It 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.520 does seem purposeful. It very much like it sits around 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:13.720 and reads the art of war and decides, this is 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:16.320 how I'm going to take you down exactly, and it 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:20.120 works like a charm. So you have your tissue that's 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:24.160 being destroyed, right yeah, which is where you get the 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:28.600 term necrotizing faciitis, which is the correct term for um 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:32.440 flash eating bacteria. That's right, and um you it also 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:36.080 promotes something called toxic shock syndrome. Is that when your 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:38.840 organs starts shutting down. That's part of it. Wow, yeah, 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:42.040 all right, well that makes sense. And that's scary. And 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:45.040 the scariest part of all this is that it starts 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:48.160 out by something really tiny, like it can be a 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:50.800 pin prick of an open wound. It doesn't have to 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:53.920 be some big gash on your leg. And it starts 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.400 out of something small and turns into something big, which 0:07:57.440 --> 0:08:00.080 is really scary. And you know, if you if you 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:01.800 have a cut on your hand, on your leg, and 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:04.600 you actually if even if you haven't been in any 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:07.080 kind of brackish water, if you just if it starts 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:09.560 to hurt a lot worse than you think it should, 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:13.600 then it's probably not one of the five cases, but 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:15.480 you should probably start looking into it. Well, what was 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:17.280 surprising to me was it doesn't even have to be 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:19.600 a cut, man, it could be an abrasion, a bruise. 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:21.720 How could a bruise I don't get that. I I 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.360 don't know if your skin is thinned out at that 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:27.320 site really like so thin it and just get through 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:32.240 the outer dermots maybe, um, but yeah you can, And 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:34.720 it doesn't just have to be like you said, brackish water. 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:36.720 Like if you have a cut an open wound on 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:40.559 your finger and you're around somebody with strep throat, yeah, 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:44.920 you could conceivably. All the stuff is in place for 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:49.480 you to to contract necrotizing fasciitists and it can go 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:53.040 person to person for sure, but without an open wound, 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:58.400 it's pretty unlikely, right, Like that's how they get in. Yeah, 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:02.120 and they eat the fat that the tissue, and then 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:04.920 they start to consume your organs. Right, And the reason 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:09.480 the flesh eating bacteria is clinically the clinical term is 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:15.160 necrotizing fasciitists, which means the killing of fascia. Fascia is 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:19.080 like this membrane that access connecting tissue between your skin 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:24.000 and fatty layer and your muscles and joints and tendons 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:29.040 and ligaments and bones and organs, and it's this uninterrupted 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:34.839 membrane that covers your entire body beneath your skin. It's like, um, 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:38.160 one of those what are they called, the one guy 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:40.080 sent it to us. We have a green screen one. 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:44.240 Oh the root suit, Yeah, the body suit. It's like 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:47.280 a root suit, but it's been between your skin and 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:50.920 your muscles. This is where this infection takes place. And 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:53.640 since it's uninterrupted, it can go everywhere. It's just basically 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:59.320 chugs along and separates your skin from your muscles by 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:02.840 killing all the tissue around it. Well, and the other 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:07.000 scary part is it's really really really fast. Like this 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:11.120 football player from the University of Tulsa died in a week. Uh. 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:14.560 Big healthy tight end, you know, like you don't have 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:16.520 to be weak, and you don't have to be old 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.640 or a child like you can attack anyone that gets 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:22.520 it and take you out pretty quickly. Yeah. Uh and 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:24.079 and just a matter of days, like you said, he 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:26.960 can go from a pin prick to you know, you 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:29.920 just lost your leg. Yeah, well, which is what happened 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:32.160 with Amy Copeland. I mean, it's a miracle that she's 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:37.120 alive right now, but she ended up having her left 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:42.120 leg completely amputated, her right foot, both of her hands, 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:45.640 and part of her torso. And she got out of 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:47.960 the hospital and like I mean, it took a while, 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:50.200 but then I think two or three days later she 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:53.240 was already had taught herself about to eat. This company 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:57.920 has thrown in to build like a thirty addition to 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:02.480 our home for like rehabilitation stuff, and uh yeah, it's 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:05.640 pretty amazing. Like her, her spirit, her dad has been 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:09.079 um posting like crazy on like Facebook and on her 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:12.600 website they started. And she's a bad man, majamma, way 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:18.160 better than me. She's tough, very inspiring. Um, so wouldn't 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:21.360 let's say if it's also crazy, Chuck, It's not just her. 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:25.960 There was another dude from Cartersville, Georgia, who had another 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:31.360 necrotizing fasciitis case, and they were actually in the rooms 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:33.960 next to one another at one while there at I 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:36.760 think a burn center in Augusta. Was it because this 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:38.560 place is like one of the one of the few 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:40.760 places in Georgia that like knows what they're doing with 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:45.480 necrotizing fasciitists. Um, and so you know, how do you 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:49.160 treat this thing? Well, the first thing you do once 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:53.080 it's diagnosed is like huge, huge, heavy doses of antibiotics 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:55.920 to obviously to try and kill it. But like we're 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:59.400 not talking like Papa pill every six hours, no, like 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:02.760 cons then tripped just basically flooding your body with it 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:08.640 um and immunoglobin globe and immunoglobe, and Jerry thought that 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:12.400 was funny. Yeah, I heard. Uh. So they want to 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.000 remove like any of the dying flesh and try and 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:18.280 try and isolate it and remove the bad parts, which 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:20.640 is what they were doing with her, and it just 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:22.839 spread so quickly. You know, they were like fighting a 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:25.920 really uphill battle in her case. I read a case study. 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:29.760 Have you seen any pictures of this stuff? Um? No, 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:33.920 m hm. So I wrote a case study of this 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:36.080 woman who came in and she had it in her 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:39.520 arm and um, you could just first of all, her 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:44.199 arms swollen. It was like cabbage patch kid's army. But 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:48.720 then there's like splotches of like purple splotches of black, 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:53.600 and then um, what's called desquamation, where like the top 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:56.240 layer of skin is just peeling off. And all of 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:58.120 this had happened to her like over the course of 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:01.000 hours and as they were treating it. One of the 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:04.880 things that they'll do before amputation is called the bride 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:09.280 mint where basically they take the the limb that's infected 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:13.360 or the area that's infected and they just scrape the tissue. 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:16.319 I read about that, Um, I saw a picture of it. 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.120 It's horrific. Yeah, I didn't look at the pictures. Um. 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:21.040 And then after that they have to treat it with 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:24.920 skin grafts, after after it's been after they got all 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:26.760 of it, hopefully, if they that's what she did on 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:29.240 her torso yeah, okay. And if they can't get it, 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:36.640 then they amputate. Yeah, it's a pretty serious condition. Okay. 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:38.679 So what the lookout for. We said, if you have 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:43.480 like a a smallish wound that's like disproportionately painful, you 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:46.680 should go on high alert. If it becomes like swollen 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:50.200 and red and hot, that's a really bad sign. If 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:54.439 you get typical things you might associate with bacteria and 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:58.160 back to your own infection, like diarrhea and fever and chills, 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:02.040 nausea and vomiting, that's a really bad time too, especially 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:03.679 if you have just a small cut on your arm, 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:06.160 So that nausea, vomiting, all that stuff could be the 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:09.400 result of UM, the infection. It could also be the 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:13.160 infection leading to toxic shock syndrome, which in and of 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:16.040 itself is pretty interesting. Apparently we've only known about that 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:20.600 since nineteen Yeah, Um, do you remember like associating it 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:24.600 with tampons. No. Well, when it first came out, like 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:28.240 almost all the case studies of this toxic shock syndrome, 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:31.840 which is like basically your organ multi organ failure, which 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:36.440 is three or more UM, lowered blood pressure, all this 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:41.360 other stuff. Um, all of the cases were of people 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:44.600 who are using like high absorbency tampons. They were women. 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:46.640 Then they started to look more and more and they 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:49.760 realized that that didn't hold true when you looked at 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:51.840 more of the case studies are a lot of men 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:54.360 and everything. And now they realize that it's the result 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:57.920 of an infection. So like the lower blood pressure is 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:01.320 like your body mounting this huge immune to ends and um, 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:04.560 so histamines are released, so your blood vessels dilate, so 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:09.400 your blood pressure decreases to a really dangerous level. It's 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:13.920 basically your body having this enormous allergic reaction to an infection. 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:17.280 And it had nothing to do with tampons. No, it did. 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:20.160 It still did, but they thought it was just tampons 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:23.800 that triggered toxic shock. Yeah. Even still there's like warnings 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:28.520 on boxes. I think that like toxic shock syndrome warning. Jeez, 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:31.480 that's pretty scary. I had older sisters. I did too, 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:35.600 but I didn't get in her business. UM. So in 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:37.880 the first twenty four hours, you know you're gonna feel 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:42.760 these pains. UM the second I'm sorry, three to four 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:46.720 days in, UM, there's gonna be some swelling, and that's 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:50.560 when you might get this purply rash or like blisters 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:53.520 that are filled with a dark fluid. That's not a 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:56.800 good sign at all. And UM, your skin even at 0:15:56.840 --> 0:15:58.600 that point, even three to four days in might start 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:03.000 to flake off and turn white or dark, and that 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:07.280 is definitely a bad sign. That's the disquamation. UM. Then 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:09.960 four to five days in, that's when the toxic shock happens. 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:13.880 And you're pretty lucky if you haven't been treated at 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:15.720 this point to to make it out alive. All right, 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:20.560 toxic shock alone of cases are fatal with UM flesh 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:24.440 eating bacteria. Overall, the thirty to forty I saw is 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:30.880 the lowest of cases. So should we talk about wound care? Sure, 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:35.000 I've never cleaned a wound like this, Well, then you 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:37.160 haven't been cleaning your wounds correctly. This is one of 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:40.680 the ways to prevent flesh eating bacteria. That's right. You 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:43.760 want to flesh your wound with cold water initially, no soap, 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:45.680 and in fact, you don't even want to get soap 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.720 into the wound. Apparently you want to clean around it 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:53.320 with with soap and the cloth and then get some 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.840 alcohol and put it on your tweezers. Use the tweezers 0:16:56.880 --> 0:16:59.720 to clean out any gunk that's in there in the 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:04.240 woon site. Yeah, I've never stuck tweezers in one of 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:07.920 my cuts ever. Well, that means you didn't have anything 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:10.159 in there, or you didn't you didn't know it. No, 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:14.359 I didn't. I was like, I'm not putting tweezers in there. Uh. 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:17.800 Then you want to apply a bandage if it's a 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:19.800 place that can be exposed to dirt. And they say 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.760 to ask a doctor whether or not to bandage, because 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:26.920 sometimes wounds are better unbandaged and heal quicker. Sometimes they're 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:31.680 better bandaged. And then the old antibodyquintment we'll always do 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:35.520 you right, don't forget that. Well, yeah, I almost always 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:38.080 put a band aid on. I've never had a wound 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:39.840 where I'm like, well, I probably shouldn't put a band aid. 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:45.560 Symbolic band aid. Um, what else you got? I've got 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:48.879 some other stuff like risk factors, Um, you can be 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:54.840 totally healthy. Just from the badness of Amy Copeland, I 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:58.399 assume she's probably a healthy person. Yeah. I think a 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:01.280 lot of people typically are healthy. UM. So you can 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:04.760 still come down with flashing in bacteria necrotizing fascitists as 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:08.120 a healthy person. Um. But there are some risk factors 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:13.320 that that would put you in the higher likelihood camp. Um. 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:16.880 If you've had an infection recently, especially with a rash 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:22.880 like chicken pox. That's one. Cuts, abrasions, those are big ones. UM. 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:27.000 Steroid use. You don't want to be using steroids anyway, 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:30.480 but even if they were prescribed and you have a cut, 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:36.240 I think steroid um steroids prevent cuts from healing is fast. 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:39.440 So I think those two combined make you at a 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:44.320 higher risk if your immune system is lower. Sure you've 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:51.400 been sick, yeah, Uh, diabetes is a big one. Yeah. Yeah. 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:54.639 And then if you are a black tar heroine user. 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:59.600 There have been outbreaks of um necrotizing fascitists among heroin 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:02.119 user before. There was one in the late nineties in 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:06.520 San Francisco, and black tar in particular, Uh, set you 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:09.400 up for it because it's like this lower purity heroine 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:13.720 that's gummy, it's gummi er than regular heroin, so it 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:16.960 collapses your veins like almost immediately. So people who shoot 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:19.800 black tar heroin do what's called skin popping, where they 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:23.239 shoot it just under the skin or into their muscles um. 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:26.639 And then because it's not the least bit refined, that's 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:30.040 why it's gummy um. There's often impurities, and sometimes some 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:32.920 of those impurities are Claustralia, which is a kind of 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:36.520 bacteria that can be a flesh eating bacteria. So basically, 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:39.200 if you're shooting black tar heroin, you're running the risk 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:43.480 of directly injecting flesh eating bacteria. And there's people who 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:48.280 have lost arms, shoulders, ribs two flesh eating bacteria by 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:50.920 shooting black tar heroin. I think the stuff you should 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:53.240 know advice is to not do heroin. Let's just go 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:56.199 ahead and just throw that out there. I could get 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:59.159 behind that. You're avoiding a whole host of problems if 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:02.960 you don't do heroin the age. So what else can 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:05.960 you do to prevent it? We'll keep the wounds clean, 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:09.760 wash your hands a lot, and that means warm water 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:13.040 and soap and like fifteen to twenty seconds of good scrubbing, 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:16.920 like you're going into surgery, get between the fingers, dry 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:19.199 it off really well. And then after you dry it off, 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:21.640 don't go and put your hand back on the faucet 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:24.840 to turn it off in a public bathroom or even 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:28.560 your own bathroom, although I don't know if I would 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:31.280 do that in my own home. No, I think your 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:34.440 own homes, Okay. I feel like there should be some 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:38.600 sort of I mean, it could lead to a resident superbugs, 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:41.800 but we already faced tho, so what do we have 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:43.640 to loose? But I feel like there should be more 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:50.320 um cleaning products handy in like public bathrooms. Well there 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:53.760 are increasingly you see those little hand sanitizer machines. I mean, 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:56.560 like here's a bottle of like bleach water and just 0:20:56.680 --> 0:20:59.440 go ahead and spray that toilet seat or well. I'm 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:02.800 not like a Hour Hughes type, but I definitely after 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:04.840 I wash my hands in the bathroom in public, like, 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:08.560 I don't put my hand on the door handle or 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:10.639 anything like that. Always try and muscle my way out 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:12.760 or put a paper twel between me and the thing. 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:15.720 I'm extremely conscious of that too, especially at the gym. Yeah, 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:18.600 I've been more conscious about it, which pops up with 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.880 your character in an episode in our TV show that's 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:26.560 coming out. That's right, a little uh teaser, Yeah, big 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:30.920 teaser right there. That's true. You got anything else? Uh? No? 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:34.760 I mean Amy Copeland's story has been prominent lately obviously, 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:37.840 and they are accepting donations, and I think we would 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:41.359 be remiss if we didn't announce that. Um, she spells 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:44.560 her name a I M E. So it's a I 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:47.320 M E E c O p E l A n 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:51.080 d dot com slash donations and just go to the 0:21:51.119 --> 0:21:53.320 website anyway, and just her stories on there and her 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:57.600 progress is on there, and it's uh both frightening and 0:21:57.800 --> 0:22:02.239 inspiring in her case. So uh, it's definitely I think 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:06.399 that triggered our desire to do this, right or did 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:08.800 it well? Yeah, I mean just that. Not only that, 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:12.560 but it seemed that, uh, nobody really had a good 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:19.440 idea of um, what flesh eating bacteria does. Loudly local 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:22.520 news reports yeah, and I mean not even local, like 0:22:22.640 --> 0:22:28.399 the national stuff too, is like, you know, um, really misinformed. 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:31.880 Like they're like each through your tissue. It doesn't eat 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:34.920 through your tissue. No nobody dug into how it really works. 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:37.280 It's very frustrating, you know why, because it's way easier 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:41.679 just to scare people with things with non facts, right, 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:42.960 But this is one of the ones where it was 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:45.399 like the more I looked into it, the more scared 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:49.600 I became. Even people are lazy. Um oh, I got 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:52.480 a little more alright at more so Like. It wasn't 0:22:52.560 --> 0:22:56.280 until nine two that somebody used the term neckartizing fasciitists 0:22:56.840 --> 0:22:59.560 and we really started to understand that it was bacteria 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:04.920 or whatever. Um. But the we knew about it since 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:07.840 the Civil War. Wow, that's crazy what they call it 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:09.960 though in the Civil War. Uh well, they used to 0:23:10.119 --> 0:23:14.480 name it, according to the doctor who reported it um 0:23:15.000 --> 0:23:17.960 so like. And it was also based on the area 0:23:18.000 --> 0:23:21.480 of the body that was infected. So like if you 0:23:21.560 --> 0:23:25.639 had furniers or Fournier's gang green, it meant that you 0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:31.360 had flesh eating bacteria around your genitals. If you had ludwigs, 0:23:32.160 --> 0:23:35.320 um angina meant your head, flesh eating bacteria around your 0:23:35.320 --> 0:23:39.200 face or mouth or jaw. Yeah. And then they figured 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:41.320 out like, oh wait, we should classify by the kind 0:23:41.359 --> 0:23:43.960 of bacteria and that these are not separate things like 0:23:44.040 --> 0:23:45.760 this is all the same thing. These people have had 0:23:45.800 --> 0:23:48.560 like a cut around there that this got into boy, 0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:51.119 you're in big trouble back then too. If you're in 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:55.600 big trouble now, imagine back then pretty scary. Well. The 0:23:55.640 --> 0:23:58.760