Peter Barr

On June 15th 2010, my husband and I were celebrating my birthday. Our dogs got into a scrap and Peter received a very small puncture wound on his left hand between his ring and middle finger. It hardly bled. He washed it off, used peroxide and a bit of polysporin, and forgot about it. (Sepsis and Animal Bites)

The weather was very hot that year. Peter was a very healthy, fit, hardworking 56-year-old father of 6 and NEVER got sick. His job was a monument engraver, a skill he learned from his dad.

The night of the 15th, he had some chills in the night. I woke him, but he didn’t seem to have a fever and we put if off figuring it was from working in sandblast gear in the heat- he often got slight heat stroke.

Friday the 18th, he came home after work at the usual time and was complaining of lower back pain. He said he just wasn’t feeling right and went and laid down. I gave him Tylenol and he didn’t seem to have a fever. Around 8pm I called Telehealth as he seemed worse and after giving symptoms they felt he may have slight heat stroke and gave me suggestions to help.

As the night went on, he became more painful and restless. No fever still. Around 4am he began retching and I knew it was time to go to the hospital. (Peter had never vomited in the 18 years I knew him.)

I had to help him to the car. At emerg, a somewhat interested nurse told us the doctor would not be there for a while. She assessed him and called the doctor who prescribed a pain shot over the phone. It didn’t do a thing. He was begging me to help him.

Finally the doctor arrived and ordered blood, this was 8am by now. I showed them the dog bite, but as it was pretty much healed they felt it was nothing to do with his situation. Peter was delirious. Now he had a fever that was rapidly climbing. Blood was taken and suddenly there was a huddle of whispers outside the room. At that time I noticed a blackish spot on his ear lobe and chin and throat.

They came rushing in and told me he had disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) and had no red blood cells. (Sepsis and DIC) They were over him with IV etc. They went to admit him into our local hospital when another doctor intervened and told me that he was too sick and needed to be transported to a bigger center. There I again showed them the dog bite, but as it was pretty much healed they also felt it was nothing to do with his situation. He was immediately put into the CCU and started on an array of IV antibiotics, plasma, etc. His fever was 106. There were 13 lines of different stuff into him. His pain level was through the roof so the doctor decided to “snow” him. This was at around noon on the 19th. At 2:30 they intubated him. A CT scan revealed nothing.

He turned black and his organs began to shut down.

He died on the 20th of June (Fathers Day) at around 4:20 pm.

The autopsy revealed that Peter died from sepsis induced by Capnocytophaga bacteria, which he received from the little bite from our dog.

Source: by Dawn Barr (Peter's wife)