Question

A middle-aged man presents to the emergency room with chest pain and is found to have suffered a heart attack. He has a past history of hypertension, non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), and high cholesterol. Exploratory surgery shows he requires a triple bypass. This is performed on the 5th day of his hospital stay. During recovery, he develops septic shock with fever and pneumonia. Gram- positive cocci in clusters, isolated from both his lungs and the surgical incision, produce yellowish, beta- hemolytic colonies on sheep blood agar. Kirby-Bauer testing demonstrates that the organism is resistant to oxacillin, penicillin, erythromycin, and gentamycin, but sensitive to vancomycin. Treatment with vancomycin is, therefore, immediately initiated. 1. 3pts. Which organism is in his lungs and in the surgical incision? Explain your reasoning. 2. Ipt. Clearly explain the connection between the two sites of infection. 3. Ipt. What other factors (about the patient) helped to establish these infections?

please type the answers, thank you.

Answer 1

Answer 1: The organism that could be present in his lungs and surgical incision could be Staphylococcus aureus. This can be verified as the organism is gram-positive and when isolated on sheep blood agar plate show beta hemolysis and yellow-colored colonies. When S. aureus is isolated on blood agar plate it causes complete breakdown of hemoglobin present in the blood which causes yellow pigmentation around the colony.

Answer 2: When a person undergoes or is currently undergoing prolonged therapy it weakens the immune system of that person which thus increases the chances of the person to get infected to other types of infections or diseases. The weakening of the immune system could be due to heavy dose consumption, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, etc. In this case, the middle-age man had undergone a triple bypass surgery which has weakened his immune system and thus and thus made him and an easier target for S.aureus to invade and multiply in his system.

Answer 3: Other factors that supported establishing infection were the age of the patient, his history of hypertension, NIDDM as well as high cholesterol.