Matt and Clarissa were married last August and then flew to Florida for their honeymoon. Along with taking in all the adventures of Orlando, the two also visited the beautiful Florida beaches where they enjoyed laying out in the sun, building intricate sand castles and body surfing. The following day, Matt noticed what appeared to be a spider bite on the small finger of his left hand. It was sore and had a small pus pocket at the center. By the following day there was redness and swelling that extended up to the joint of his hand. Matt made a visit to the urgent care facility in Florida and the doctor told him that it was an fire ant sting. Matt was given an antibiotic ointment to treat the infection and a steroid shot to reduce the swelling. For a day the finger felt better, but two days later the finger became worse. Arriving back in Utah, Matt went to another urgent care facility. At this time the doctor lanced the finger, drained it of pus and took a culture of the infection. Matt was then given Augmentin, a fairly strong oral antibiotic, for the infection, but the infection only got worse. The finger had more redness, swelling and pus and the swelling extended to the rest of his hand. Matt returned to the urgent care where the abscess was drained again. At this point Matt was told to go to the
emergency room.
The doctor at the ER made a deeper incision and drained the abscess for a third time. He then packed the wound to keep it open so that it could continually drain. Lidocain was injected into Matt's hand but it did little to alleviate the intense pain of draining the abscess. The results from the previous day's culture showed that Matt had contracted MRSA in his finger and from that cellulitis had developed in his hand. Two other smaller infected sores had shown up on Matt's skin; one on his abdomen and one on his thigh just above his knee. After draining the finger abscess Matt was given a one time dose of Vancomycin IV (a very strong antibiotic) and placed on a 10 day regimen of the oral antibiotic Bactrim. Because of the intense pain Matt went through during the draining of the abscess, he was also given an IV pain killer.
Matt missed 10 days of work because of this MRSA infection. He had to visit a hand surgeon to see if there may have been any tendon damage. The surgeon followed up with Matt after the 10 day course of Bactrim and placed Matt on a second round on Bactrim because of unresolved redness and swelling. The total medical cost of Matt's MRSA infection was approximately $5000 and lost income from not working was over $1000.
The doctor at the ER made a deeper incision and drained the abscess for a third time. He then packed the wound to keep it open so that it could continually drain. Lidocain was injected into Matt's hand but it did little to alleviate the intense pain of draining the abscess. The results from the previous day's culture showed that Matt had contracted MRSA in his finger and from that cellulitis had developed in his hand. Two other smaller infected sores had shown up on Matt's skin; one on his abdomen and one on his thigh just above his knee. After draining the finger abscess Matt was given a one time dose of Vancomycin IV (a very strong antibiotic) and placed on a 10 day regimen of the oral antibiotic Bactrim. Because of the intense pain Matt went through during the draining of the abscess, he was also given an IV pain killer.
Matt missed 10 days of work because of this MRSA infection. He had to visit a hand surgeon to see if there may have been any tendon damage. The surgeon followed up with Matt after the 10 day course of Bactrim and placed Matt on a second round on Bactrim because of unresolved redness and swelling. The total medical cost of Matt's MRSA infection was approximately $5000 and lost income from not working was over $1000.
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