What happened to Addie’s antibiotics?
Addie’s doctors had run out of the most common antibiotics used to treat these serious bacteria so, in desperation, they turned to an antibiotic known as colistin. Colistin is very powerful, but it is also so highly toxic to the kidneys and other organs that doctors rarely use it. We started saying extra prayers.
What happened to Addie Rerecich and David Ricci from hunting the nightmare bacteria?
When FRONTLINE’s Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria premiered in 2013, Addie Rerecich and David Ricci were still struggling with the consequences of devastating antibiotic resistant infections. Four years later, FRONTLINE caught up with the two survivors to find out how they were doing as part of an updated broadcast of the film.
Does Addie ever get better?
But Addie didn’t get better. I called paramedics and took her to the emergency room one more time before seeking a second opinion at another hospital. Addie walked into the hospital with me on May 19, 2011, and would not pass again through those doors until October, five months later.
Why did Addie get sent home with ibuprofen?
Doctors there saw nothing wrong with her white blood cell counts or other lab results that might indicate she had a bacterial infection, so they sent us home with ibuprofen and a reminder to see our doctor within three days. But Addie didn’t get better.
What happened to Addy from hunting the nightmare bacteria?
Rerecich continued to engage in physical therapy and took dozens of medications daily to limit the chance of infection. Rerechich's body began to reject her lungs and she refused to have another transplant. Rerechich died in her home on December 30, 2019 surrounded by friends and family at the age of 20.
What type of bacterial infection did Addy enter the hospital with?
Doctors ordered a culture of her blood, and found her body was overcome with a Staphylococcus infection, a condition called sepsis. The infection had begun growing as an abscess in her hip muscle, and spread into her blood, eventually causing a devastating bacterial pneumonia in her lungs.
Which gene was causing the antibiotic resistance in hunting the nightmare bacteria?
This one was homegrown. It lives in the digestive system, and like NDM-1, it's a gene that can spread its resistance to other bacteria. It's called KPC. No one knows exactly how many patients in the New York City area have been infected with KPC or how many have died from it.
What did doctors believe Addy was infected with initially?
what did doctors believe Addie was infected with initially? What were her symptoms? Addie had "community-acquired" resistant staph.
What are nightmare bacteria?
Perhaps you've heard about drug-resistant “Superbugs” in the news. These new threats we are facing now are called “Nightmare Bacteria.” Some of these germs include: Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA), Candida auris, and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE).
What does colistin treat?
Colistin is a polymyxin antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections caused by susceptible Gram negative bacteria. Cyclic polypeptide antibiotic from Bacillus colistinus. It is composed of Polymyxins E1 and E2 (or Colistins A, B, and C) which act as detergents on cell membranes.
Did Addie survive?
After five years of physical therapy and several bouts of pneumonia, she is covered in surgical scars. She takes a daily cocktail of medications that leave her tired, trembling and nauseous. But she survived.
How did the bacteria population become more resistant in Addie and in our community?
Bacteria populations became more resistant to being killed by antibiotics as trait distributions in the population that granted them a competitive advantage for survival became more prevalent over many generations of exposure to antibiotics.
How does antibiotic use promote the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria?
Anytime antibiotics are used, they can contribute to antibiotic resistance. This is because increases in antibiotic resistance are driven by a combination of germs exposed to antibiotics, and the spread of those germs and their mechanisms of resistance.
What did Addie acquire from the ECMO treatment quizlet?
Terms in this set (14) Addie had 'community-acquired' resistant staph (as opposed to hospital-acquired).
What did the doctor think was most likely happening to Addie?
2. What did the doctor think was most likely happening to Addie? A. A staph bacterium was causing septic shock.
Why are Gram negative bacteria so much harder to treat with antibiotics?
Gram-negative bacterial infections are tough to treat because the microbes have an extra outer membrane that is hard for antibiotics to traverse. And the ones that do get in are usually pumped right back out by the cells.
When did Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria premiere?
When FRONTLINE’s Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria premiered in 2013, Addie Rerecich and David Ricci were still struggling with the consequences of devastating antibiotic resistant infections. Four years later, FRONTLINE caught up with the two survivors to find out how they were doing as part of an updated broadcast of the film.
What was the condition that Rerecich had?
While in the hospital, she contracted an untreatable form of the bacteria stenotrophomonas that nearly took her life. Rerecich spent three months on life support before receiving a double-lung transplant. After five years of physical therapy and several bouts of pneumonia, she is covered in surgical scars.
What happened to David Ricci?
After an amputation in a nearby hospital, Ricci contracted an antibiotic resistant infection that nearly took his life.
What is the name of the machine that doctors put a woman on to save her life?
NARRATOR: The staph infection had so damaged her lungs, the doctors had no choice. To save her life, they put her on a lung bypass machine, called ECMO.
Why is stenotrophomonas so hard to treat?
So Stenotrophomonas is incredibly difficult to treat because it has that serious body armor surrounding it. NARRATOR: The ability of Gram-negatives to aggressively fight off antibiotics was now playing out in Addie.
Did Ricci bring NDM-1?
Ricci had brought NDM-1 into the United States. It was one of the first cases to ever be identified here, and Lynch had little to go on. Dr. JOHN LYNCH: There’s not a lot of clinical experience with treating these bacteria anywhere─ in the literature, there’s no books, there’s no things on it.
Can you live without antibiotics?
NARRATOR: The prospect of life without antibiotics is barely imaginable for a world that has had a cheap and plentiful supply of them since the end of World War II. They are a staple of modern medicine. It’s hard to recall a time without them, when an infected cut could kill a healthy young person in a matter of days.
Is NDM-1 hearty?
NARRATOR: With the spread of NDM-1, a much wider population is put at risk. And what has health officials around the world especially worried is that NDM-1 is hearty─ and it travels. After two weeks in an Indian hospital, David Ricci was flown home to Seattle and taken to the trauma unit at Harborview Medical Center.
Is NDM-1 a superbug?
NARRATOR: NDM-1 isn’t bacteria, it’s actually a resistance gene that can turn bacteria into superbugs. NDM-1 is resistant to almost all antibiotics. Even more frightening, it is promiscuous─ the resistance gene can jump from bacteria to bacteria, making treatable infections suddenly untreatable. But there was more.
Did Addie sleep much that night?
She didn’t sleep much that night, woke me up a couple of times asking if she could take a hot bath or have another Ibuprofen. NARRATOR: The next day, Tonya Rerecich, a nurse for 16 years, took Addie to a local hospital, where they said she had symptoms of a virus.
How much of the antibiotics are unnessary?
Antibiotic Resistant. Public health officials estimate that up to half of all antibiotic use in the U.S. is. unnessary or inappropiate. From the economic standpoint of a (antibiotic drug) developer, you only need antibiotics briefly (due to the evolution of antibiotic resistance) so drug developers do not get the return on ...
Can Addie be treated with antibiotics?
Addie was treated with multiple antibiotics, one at a time, each time her population of bacteria evolved resistance until they said that Addie's population of Stenotrophomonas was pan resistant. Can't treat it.
What is the best treatment for nightmares?
Treatment modalities for nightmare disorder include medications, most prominently prazosin, and several behavioral therapies, of which the nightmare-focused cognitive behavioral therapy variants, especially image rehearsal therapy, are effective.
How common is nightmare disorder?
Nightmare disorder is common, affecting about 4% of the adult population3with a higher proportion affecting children and adolescents. The presence of nightmare disorder can impair quality of life, resulting in sleep avoidance and sleep deprivation, with a consequent increase in the intensity of the nightmares.
What antibiotics did Addie's doctors use?
Addie’s doctors had run out of the most common antibiotics used to treat these serious bacteria so, in desperation, they turned to an antibiotic known as colistin. Colistin is very powerful, but it is also so highly toxic to the kidneys and other organs that doctors rarely use it. We started saying extra prayers.
How much weight did Addie lose?
She had suffered a stroke. She had lost 30 pounds, almost one third of her body weight. She was so weak and debilitated that she couldn't even turn herself side to side in bed. With intensive therapy Addie is improving, but progress is slow, and no one is sure how much function she can regain.
Did Addie's eye transplant go off?
The transplant went off successfully, but, in the end, our lives will never be the same. When we left the hospital, Addie was in a wheelchair. She had lost the use of her left arm, had almost no vision in her left eye, and had restricted vision in her right eye. She had limited use of her left leg.