Background
\u2022 On May 30, a 22-year-old man complained of right-hand weakness.
\u2022 On June 1, he complained of right-arm numbness.
\u2022 On June 2, he exhibited several episodes of staring and unresponsiveness lasting 10 to 15
seconds. He consulted a physician in Mexico, who prescribed an unknown medication.
That evening, he presented himself to a hospital emergency room in Texas complaining of
right-hand pain. He had been punctured by a catfish fin earlier in the week, so, based on
this information, he was treated with ceftriaxone and tetanus toxoid.
\u2022 On June 3, when he returned to the emergency room complaining of spasms, he was
hyperventilating and had a white blood cell (WBC) count of 11,100 per \u03bcl. Although he
was discharged after reporting some improvement, he began to have intermittent episodes
of rigidity, breath holding, hallucinations, and difficulty swallowing. Eventually he refused
liquids. That evening, he was admitted to the intensive-care unit of another hospital in
Texas with a preliminary diagnosis of either encephalitis or tetanus. Manifestations included
frequent spasms of the face, mouth, and neck; stuttering speech; hyperventilation;
and a temperature of 37.8\u00b0C. His WBC count was 17,100 mm3 with granulocytosis. He
was sedated and observed.
\u2022 On the morning of June 4, the patient was confused, disoriented, and areflexic (without
reflexes). Although his neck was supple, muscle tonus was increased in his upper extremities.
Analysis of cerebrospinal fluid indicated slightly elevated protein, slightly elevated
glucose, and 1 WBC per 100 \u03bcl. An electroencephalogram showed abnormal activity.
Because he had uncontrolled oral secretions, he was intubated. His temperature rose to
41.7\u00b0C, and he was sweating profusely.
\u2022 On June 5, the man died.
\u2022 The patient had worked as a phlebotomist for a blood bank and had donated blood on May
22. His platelets had been transfused before he became ill, but the remainder of his blood
products were destroyed.
\u00a0
Questions
1. What was the purpose of the ceftriaxone? The tetanus toxoid?
2. What is granulocytosis?
3. What is the most likely cause of the man\u2019s illness and death?
4. What other information do you need to be sure?
5. How could he have been treated?
6. How should the recipient of the platelets be treated?
\u00a0
7. Reference(s): Include at least 1 valid reference for your research in correct format (either APA or MLA)
\u00a0
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Background \u2022 On May 30, a 22-year-old man complained of right-hand weakness. \u2022 On June 1, he complained of right-arm numbness. \u2022 On June 2, he exhibited several episodes of staring and unresponsiveness lasting 10 to 15 seconds. He consulted a physician in Mexico, who prescribed an unknown medication. That evening, he presented himself to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-15957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-paper-writing","tag-biology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}