Bubonic plagueOregon man infected with the plague leaves ICU
Paul Gaylord, a welder from Prineville in rural Oregon, who in July 2012 contracted bubonic plague from a stray cat, has recovered and can now reflect on his experience. After admission to the hospital, Gaylord lapsed into a coma for twenty-seven days. While in a coma, his hands and legs swelled and turned black. The doctors told him that tests showed he was infected with the bubonic plague, and that his fingers would have to be amputated.
Paul Gaylord, a welder from Prineville in rural Oregon, who in July 2012 contracted bubonic plague from a stray cat, survived and has shared his experience with journalists.
Gaylord told the Guardian that one Saturday in July 2012 he noticed a stray cat on his property, and that the cat was choking. Gaylord and a friend forced the cat’s mouth open and saw that a dead mouse was stuck in the cat’s throat. They tried to pull the dead mouse out his cat’s mouth, but failed. As the cat was choking to the death, the two agreed that shooting him would be the humane solution, and did so, burying it in the back yard. While struggling to get the dead mouse out of the cat throat, though, the cat bit The Guardian reports that Gaylord. He did not think much of it, but by Monday he became seriously sick.
He was given antibiotics, but on Tuesday was rushed to the hospital, where in the afternoon he lapsed into a coma for twenty-seven days. While in a coma, his hands and legs swelled and turned black.
The doctors told him that tests showed he was infected with the bubonic plague, and that his fingers would have to be amputated.
His family released pictures showing his hands withered by the cell-killing infection and darkened to the color of charcoal.
“I don’t think I can do my job,” he told the AP in a phone interview from hospital.
“I’m going to lose all my fingers on both hands. I don’t know about my thumbs. The toes – I might lose all them, too.”
He said his family was beginning to look for a news house, because the house they now live in has a leaky roof, a moldy bathroom, and mice — living conditions which are not suitable for someone with a weakened immune system.
“We didn’t even know the plague was around anymore,” said his sister, Diana Gaylord. “We thought that was an ancient, ancient disease.”
The Guardian notes that the disease, which devastated whole European populations during outbreaks in the Middle Ages – at some point, it wiped out between a quarter and a third of the population of Europe — is caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium. The disease comes in three forms:
- Bubonic plague, which swells lymph nodes across the body
- Septicaemic plague, which affects the bloodstream
- Pneumonic plague, which affects the lungs
The cat’s body was dug up, and tests confirmed it had the plague. Other cats and dogs in the area were tested and none had the disease.
