Cat bites can be very dangerous. These cats can cause a deep enough wound, affecting the blood vessels, with the risk of infection that this entails. That is precisely what has happened to Henrik Kriegbaum Plettner, a Dane who has died after catching a bacterium after receiving a bite from his cat.
Plettner adopted a cat and her kittens from a shelter in 2018. They bit her index finger after trying to move one of the animals. The man did not give it much importance, until his hand began to swell in a few hours. Quickly, he went to a specialist. He called a doctor, but was not seen until the next day, and after several consultations, he ended up in Denmark’s Kolding Hospital.
As reported by Daily Mail, he was there for a month and underwent 15 operations. This Dane overcame all medical complications, but his ordeal did not end there. The interventions did not work as the specialists believed. His finger was still not working properly and the doctors decided to amputate it four months after the interventions.
Despite this, the 33-year-old’s health began to decline. “The cat had bitten right into a blood vessel, and when a cat bites and pulls out the tooth, the hole closes up and the bacteria spreads,” his mother told local media. In addition, the woman assured that he had very “fluctuating” health: “he had a weakened immune system, pneumonia, gout and diabetes.
Tissue infections in cat bite wounds are usually caused by a pathogenic bacterium known as Pasteurella multocida. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (INSST), this infection is usually caused by an animal bite or scratch and affects the skin and soft tissues of the wound area. It is characterized by an incubation period of less than 24 hours, normally 3-6 hours, and symptoms such as: intense pain, inflammation, and rapid development of cellulite. In addition, a fever may appear.
It does not usually cause serious problems, although serious systemic and invasive infections (sepsis and bacteraemia) can occur in adult patients with different and varied comorbidity factors.
In Plettner’s case, the wound closed after the cat bite and there was no suspicion that the bacteria would begin to spread throughout the bloodstream. The family explains that this Dane who died in October, but now they have made it public so that others take cat bites seriously. “We had no idea that he was so seriously ill,” says the widow, in statements collected by this medium. “Go to the doctor after a bite, don’t think he’s just a cat,” she finishes.
