infection

barnhijl · Jun 18, 2012

Ok my MC is bitten by a big lizard (think komodo dragon like - it's a fantasy novel) while she is in the jungle. I have several questions... I thought I already did enough research on the topic but a few beta's have pointed out parts that were wrong... any help would be appreciated! I don't want my MC to die from infection... I just want her to suffer.

1. How fast would an infection take place?
2. how bad would it get and how quickly?
3. How would it look?
4. How would it need to be treated?
5. What would make it worse (the heat? the humidity?)
6. Is there a way to delay the infection, like would covering it make it take longer to settle in?
7.Also how would a character act if their leg was all infected? (could they walk, how long before they would get a fever and so on..)

thanks so much for anyone's help! I back tracked through the forum but couldn't find anything like this so sorry if it's a repeat. any additional information would be wonderful!

espresso5 · Jun 18, 2012

A komodo dragon has a type of venom that disables bitten prey so the lizards can track them down when the prey weakens and can't put up much of a fight.
1. By infection I'm assuming you mean the visible response/result. The presence of a pathogenic microorganism initiates infection, which would be immediate.
Most lizards have quite a bit of bacteria in their mouth. Inflammation would happen relatively quickly (minutes to a couple of hours). Whether the infection progresses to something more serious depends on the type of bacteria and if it's able to bypass the body's initial defense.
2. The inflammation could look bad and be painful after an hour or two, but resolve in a couple of days if the infection is contained.
3. Swollen and red, with some tissue damage around the tooth punctures, which might be purplish or even blanched white.
4. Assuming we're not dealing with any venom, antibiotics.
5. Nothing should make it particularly worse. I suppose excess heat might increase the edema or speed with which the inflammaion occurs.
6. Not really. Ice could slow some of the inflammatory process.
7. As long as there is no severe tissue damage, they should be able to walk just fine until they're disabled by fever and/or sepsis, which would occur after a couple of days if the body's initial response did not resolve the local infection and bacteremia, septicemia and maybe sepsis sets in.

Siri Kirpal · Jun 18, 2012

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

If you want your character to live, don't have her bit by a komodo dragon. Their venom is nearly always lethal.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

barnhijl · Jun 18, 2012

thanks for the info espresso.

siri: It's not a komodo dragon, it's just an easy comparison. (again, it's a fantasy novel)

also with caring for the infection I meant more like how would you clean the wound?

mirandashell · Jun 18, 2012

clean cloth and antiseptic?

Kenn · Jun 18, 2012

You could delay it as long as you like if the infection comes from the environment rather than the bite. In which case, covering it up would probably delay the onset. The extent of the symptoms would depend on the health and the severity of the infection. So you can probably make them as bad as you want. You could use a natural antiseptic to treat the wound (and there are probably ones to treat the fever, etc.), but I don't know much about these.

barnhijl · Jun 18, 2012

hmm.. I'll have to look into antiseptics. I don't really have any medical knowledge so this whole issue has been a pain.

thanks for all the info though

mirandashell · Jun 18, 2012

Here you go:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=na...7ADSA_en&redir_esc=&ei=sXrfT4j1IMXl8QOm_oSoCw

Kenn · Jun 18, 2012

barnhijl said:
hmm.. I'll have to look into antiseptics. I don't really have any medical knowledge so this whole issue has been a pain.

thanks for all the info though

It's probably worth checking out something on jungle survival. I have a feeling that coconut water (for example) is good stuff to clean a wound, but I don't really know.

espresso5 · Jun 18, 2012

barnhijl said:
with caring for the infection I meant more like how would you clean the wound?

Depending on the level of tissue damage, flush it with sterile water and wrap it in sterile gauze. You can go the H2O2 and /or betadine route as well if you have some available.
You can try swabbing out a puncture with a Q-tip coated in betadine or H2O2 if the character isn't going to get to the hospital any time soon.

Unimportant · Jun 18, 2012

Infection from an animal bite will probably be from bacteria in the animal's mouth. If the bite tears open the flesh a lot, then bacteria from the environment (dirt, etc) will also get into the wound. How fast infection sets in depends on how much bacteria get into the wound at the start.

At first the infection will be localised just to the wound site, so you'll want to clean it out as fast as possible. In a pre-industrial society, that means flushing all the dirt out with copious amounts of clean water, and then sterilising the wound as best as possible, usually by pouring some kind of alcohol over it (brandy, etc). Some pre industrial societies also used honey (which provides a clean 'coating' over the wound, is itself sterile, and often contains natural antibiotics) , or "old wives' remedies" like mouldy bread (which often did work because the mould in fact was penicillin!).

Once the infection spreads through the tissue, it's a lot harder to treat, and often the limb will need to be amputated; when the infection gets into the blood, the person is pretty much a goner without antibiotic treatment.

barnhijl · Jun 18, 2012

thanks everyone!

infection

barnhijl

espresso5

Siri Kirpal

Swan in Process

barnhijl

mirandashell

Kenn

New kid, be gentle!

barnhijl

mirandashell

Kenn

New kid, be gentle!

espresso5

Unimportant

No COVID yet. Still masking.

barnhijl