Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/man-dies-kitten-bite/

Some things defy explanation. Take the unusual case of a Danish man who rescued a cat with kittens and ended up being bitten by one of them and then dying four years after the bite. It sounds crazy but it’s true. In 2018, Henrik Kriegbaum Plettner adopted a cat and her kittens from a shelter. While moving one of the tiny felines, it bit him on his index finger. Plettner wasn’t alarmed and didn’t think to seek medical attention until hours later when his hand blew up to twice its normal size. He then called a doctor but was advised to wait until the next day to seek medical treatment. The decision would prove to be a huge mistake, as he soon ended up at the Kolding Hospital in Denmark.

Cat Bites

Now, his family is warning the public not to delay if the same thing happens to them. So, what occurred to cause his death? Rabies can take a year or more to kill its victims, but that wasn’t the case in this instance. According to the Daily Mail, it was a flesh-eating bacteria that caused the mayhem in the man’s body. While cases like these can usually be cleared up relatively quickly, individuals with weakened or lowered immune systems don’t fare as well as others. In Plettner’s situation, the 33-year-old ended up losing his index finger four months later, but not before 15 operations were performed to rectify the problem.

Dire Situation

His mother told the media he had very fluctuating health with a weakened immune system, pneumonia, gout, and diabetes. “The cat had bitten right into a blood vessel, and when a cat bites and pulls its tooth out, the hole closes and the bacteria spreads.” Tissue infections in cat bite wounds are typically caused by pathogenic bacterium known as Pasteurella multocida. In some cases, this occasionally leads to a rare bacterial infection known as necrotizing fasciitis, which can lead to the loss of limbs and sometimes death. As the wound Plettner received closed almost immediately after the lethal bite was inflicted, the bacteria had an opportunity to enter his bloodstream through the vein and stayed in the body where it silently began to spread.

Public Health Warning

Doctors recommend you wash the area immediately with soap and apply antibiotic ointment if available. You should then cover the wound with a sterile bandage and see a physician as soon as you can — within hours, if possible. While Plettner died in October, his family wanted to go public so that others will take cat bites more seriously. His widow, Desirée, shared, “We knew that he was doing badly, however, we had no idea that he was so seriously ill. Go to the doctor after a bite. Don’t think, ‘oh, that’s just a cat.’ Don’t take any chances.”

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog