Woman Wakes Up From Coma To Discover Her Arms And Legs Were Amputated Because Of A Dog Lick

Who doesn’t treasure sweet and loving dog licks? The sloppy affection seems like an innocent way to bond with a pooch, but in some circumstances, it can be extremely dangerous and even life-altering. One dog owner was forced to get all of her arms and legs amputated after a dog lick.

Marie Trainer, a woman from Ohio, had just gotten back home from a vacation in the Caribbean with her husband Matthew. But soon after returning home, she started to feel sick with flu-like symptoms of fluctuating temperatures, nausea and back pain on May 10.

“Her temperature went up then went down to about 93 degrees, that’s when we rushed her to the hospital,” Matthew told Fox 8.

Marie was taken to the Aultman Hospital on May 11, and despite aggressive treatments, her condition took a scary turn for the worse. Her body soon developed sepsis, a life-threatening condition that can lead to tissue damage and organ failure as the body tries to fight off an infection.

Marie’s limbs began to turn necrotic and deteriorate because of gangrene. Doctors put Marie in a medically-induced coma on May 12 after the 54-year-old woman could no longer breathe on her own and was put on life support.

Doctors had unsuccessfully attempted to remove clots from her limbs. Doctors realized amputation was the only way to save her life. Marie woke up 10 days later and had no recollection of what had happened to her.

“When I opened my eyes, I didn’t know where I was,” Marie said. “It was very hard to find out that they had to remove my legs and my arms…very hard to cope with.”

“It was so rapid in progression… there was nothing they could do,” said Marie’s step-daughter, Gina Premier, who works as a nurse practitioner at the hospital.

Doctors diagnosed the cause of the near-death infection as capnocytophaga, a bacteria that live in the mouths of dogs and cats. Capnocytophaga is spread to humans when the animal’s saliva is spread to humans through bites or scratches. The bacteria are especially dangerous to people who have weakened immune systems.

Doctors believe that Marie’s violent illness was from the saliva of her two dogs when they licked a small scrape on her arm. “My dogs lick me all the time,” Marie said.

Marie underwent eight surgeries and has been hospitalized for more than 80 days.

Despite her dogs being the cause of her legs and arms being amputated, Marie still loves her dogs. “My dog licked me… my dogs lick me all the time,” Marie continued, still trying to understand the series of events.

Marie is also thankful for her husband who is “here every day for me… every day he feeds me, and dresses me here every day.”

A GoFundMe page has been created with a goal of raising $75,000 to cover Marie’s medical expenses and the physical rehabilitation that she will need to do. At the time of publication, the crowdfunding campaign had raised nearly $11,000.

This isn’t the first time that an innocent dog lick has resulted in a human losing their hands and legs. Greg Manteufel also thought he had the flu and then eight days later he was diagnosed with capnocytophaga canimorsus from the saliva of his pit bull Ellie.

Manteufel also suffered from sepsis and needed 14 surgeries. Doctors had to amputate Greg’s arms and legs, plus he lost his nose to the infection.

MicrobeNet, the online reference library for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stated that there were 12 cases of capnocytophaga in 2017.

Margaret Kobe, the medical director of Infectious Disease at the Aultman Hospital, said a severe reaction to contact with dog saliva is extremely rare and only happens to roughly one in a million people.

There are other dangers of a dog licking you such as higher risks of gingivitis, periodontal disease, and antibiotic-resistant infections. Here is a video titled “Should You Let A Dog Lick Your Face?” that runs down the possible dangers of dog licks. Maybe just a paw shake instead of the licking next time.

[People]