The importance of recognizing immunodeficiency

On a cold, blustery Cleveland day when I was a resident, a forty-year-old man walked into our infectious disease clinic at the Cleveland Clinic. The patient was undergoing routine visits in preparation for a kidney transplant. This poor man had been hospitalized six months earlier at another hospital where he caught a terrible infection and was readmitted in septic shock and multi-organ failure. Luckily he survived, but in the process lost some of his toes as well as his kidney function. Thus, he was now on dialysis and awaiting a new kidney. The organism to blame was streptococcus pneumoniae, which causes pneumonias and ear infections but isn’t deemed life threatening in healthy individuals. Moreover, most of us are vaccinated against this as babies and again as adults. Continue reading ... Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how.
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Conditions Specialist Source Type: blogs