07.17.14
Vulnificus season illnesses drifting in
From the Hattiesburg newspaper:
René Olier went fishing June 5 just the way he had for 50 years. He stopped to get live bait and set out for an area south of Cat Island.
The 63-year-old returned about 2:30 p.m. feeling fine, his wife, Linda Olier, said, but woke up in the night with chills. Probably just from being in the sun all day, they thought.
The next morning, though, he started having gastrointestinal distress and pain near the hand he’d used to scoop bait. Probably from all the horse flies, he thought. She went to get Benadryl from a nearby store and by the time she got back his arm was visibly swollen …
Luckily, the Oliers’ daughter had written a Facebook post about his condition. A friend, whose father lost his leg to Vibrio after getting cut on a crab trap, was able to recommend a doctor.
René Olier was transferred to Memorial Hospital at Gulfport, where the affected tissue was removed. But by the next morning, his organs were failing.
“(The doctor) said he’s not gonna live through the night unless we amputate his arm,??? Linda Olier said, but the procedure saved his life.
It’s a terrible illness. No one gets through it easily. A week earlier, the newspaper mentions, another man lost his life.
“Mississippi had 12 reported cases in 2012,” reads the newspaper.
Previously, here.