Question

Charles Bailey is a 17 year-old male patient that has spent a few days in the hospital. He is being treated for various injuries sustained during a fall from the roof of his two story home while doing yard work and maintenance. During his sudden fall into the yard, Charles fell onto open pair of hedge shears on his leg, creating a large gash.

Neighbors noticed the incident as it occurred and immediately called for the paramedics. In hospital, Charles' arm bones were set, and his superficial wounds were treated. The patient was also started on prophylactic IV-cephalexin. Despite this, Charles' leg wound started to become inflamed and secreted yellow cloudy fluid. Charles also started experiencing high fevers. The fluid was drained from the wound and sent to the laboratory for analysis.

Which bacteria is responsible for this?

a.Serratia marscencens

b.Providencia stuartii

Explain why

Answer 1

The bacteria responsible for this infection would be Serratia marscencens. Because the bacterium is a oppertunistic bacterium which is found in open environment mainly in soil. The hedge shears gash would have been the cause by which the bacterium got into the open wound and infected it. Secondly the bacterium is resistant to most antibiotics so normal antibiotics would not work on the bacterium. So despite having antibiotic prophylactic-IV Charles was not cured.