American couple fighting with super bacteria, accidentally discovered that bacteriophages can treat super bacteria infection

American Tom Patterson suddenly experienced severe vomiting during his vacation in Egypt, which he thought might be caused by food poisoning. But in fact, this is not food poisoning, and Tom was so wrong. What happened next was a thrilling medical miracle of a lifetime. Tom was very lucky because he "lost" his life. Tom is able to survive because he has a resourceful wife and the conversations she overheard on the phone. What exactly is going on? Let's start with Tom's serious illness. Tom’s wife Stephanie Strathdie is an infectious disease epidemiologist.

One day, Stephanie was calling her colleagues to discuss Tom's condition. At this moment, her husband Tom is in critical condition, and the doctor has implemented an artificial coma for him in order to protect his brain. Suddenly, Stephanie heard someone asking on the other end of the phone: "Did anyone tell Stephanie that her husband Tom is dying?" When she heard this, Stephanie was shocked. This was something she shouldn't have heard. Because the colleague on the other end of the phone didn't realize that Stephanie was still on the phone. They thought Stephanie had hung up the phone, so they were still talking about Tom's condition.

But this sentence gave Stephanie a big shock. At this moment, she stayed there, holding the phone in her hand, and for the first time realized that Tom was really going to die soon. Stephanie was thinking: No one told me. She felt that she had to do something. If there is nothing modern medicine can do, but at least you have to do your best, and you can't just watch Tom die like this.

Tom lay there and became a "vegetative". At this time, Stephanie remembered the medical literature she had read before and said that sometimes people who fell into a deep coma can hear other people's speech. So, she decided to ask Tom himself if he wants to live? Certainly, Stephanie came to Tom's bed.

She said to Tom: "My dear, if you want to live, you need to do your best. The doctor has nothing to do. All antibiotics are not working now. If you want to survive, please Hold my hand and I will try my best to save you." After a while, Stephanie felt Tom's hand grip her firmly. Stephanie waved her fists excitedly and yelled. But soon Stephanie realized her innocence. She realized that she was not even a doctor, how could she save Tom?

Both Tom and Stephanie are scientists at the University of California, San Diego. The two met through an AIDS research project. They all love to travel, have traveled to about 50 countries together, and always want to explore new destinations. In November 2015, the two planned to go to Egypt for a holiday when a Russian flight crashed shortly after taking off from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. There is a theory that the Russian flight was destroyed by a bomb planted by terrorism.

The two hesitated at the time whether they should cancel their trip to Egypt. But finally decided to go as planned. At that time, they were most worried about encountering terrorist attacks. The trip to Egypt did not disappoint them. Their last stop is the Valley of the Kings. They chose to get there by ferry. The night boat had a capacity of 150 people, but they were almost the only passengers on board at the time. The two enjoyed a good meal on the deck, and the Nile was sparkling under the beautiful starry sky. Everything is romantic and beautiful.

But shortly after returning to his cabin after dinner, Tom began to vomit. At first they thought it might be food poisoning. The two would always take Cipro antibiotics when traveling for emergency needs. But this time the antibiotic didn't work after taking it. Tom's condition is getting worse and he has back pain. The symptoms this time are different from the previous symptoms of food poisoning. When the ferry arrived at the port, the doctor gave Tom a CT scan and found that it was not food poisoning at all. The examination showed that there was a cyst in Tom's intestines and it had grown to the size of a football. Fortunately, they bought medical insurance for the trip. Tom was airlifted to Frankfurt, Germany for treatment.

At the beginning, the doctor thought Tom’s problem was due toCaused by a discharged stone stuck in the bile duct. But when they cut open the cyst, they found a cloudy brown liquid inside. This shows that it is not a new infection. As the doctor tried to find the source of the problem, Tom fell into a deep coma. During the coma, Tom had hallucinations. He thought he was still in Egypt and saw hieroglyphs. At the same time, the doctor also realized that Tom’s infection was not trivial, arguably the most serious infection on earth. The bacteria that caused Tom's infection was Acinetobacter baumannii.

For this reason, Germany has also closed some hospitals. To prevent infection, Tom was quarantined. Due to the critical condition, Tom's children also flew over from the United States. The doctor must wear special protective clothing when visiting Tom. The doctors who treated Tom were almost in a situation where they were "poor." At this moment, the deadly superbug is raging in Tom's blood, all the existing antibiotics are not working, and the situation is very critical.

All this shocked Stephanie. Stephanie remembers studying Acinetobacter baumannii when she was studying microbiology at university. Stephanie remembers that in the 1980s, she had experimented with the bacteria in a petri dish. At the time, people didn't think the pathogen was terrible. Stephanie: "Say we only need gloves, white coats, and no special equipment." However, in the past 20 years, the bacterium has continuously evolved, learned how to resist antibiotics, and became a deadly, super pathogen.

In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) listed it as one of the three superbugs and said that there is an urgent need to develop effective antibiotics against these superbugs. German doctors found some antibiotics that stabilize Tom's condition. Fortunately, Stephanie and Tom met many friends and experts in the medical field due to their work relationship. On the advice of some experts, Stephanie decided to let Tom return to the United States to continue treatment because American doctors have more experience with Acinetobacter baumannii.

After Tom returned to the United States, the doctor did an antibiotic sensitivity test for him. Unfortunately, none of the antibiotics worked. Doctors face a difficult choice, either to remove the cyst through surgery or to drain the fluid from the cyst through a straw. But in the end, the doctor thought that the risk of the operation was too great, because if the bacteria flowed into the blood after the operation, Tom may suffer septic shock, which is an overreaction of the human immune system to foreign "invaders".

Stephanie explained that once this happens, the mortality rate is 50%, and it will happen quickly. The doctor decided to take the latter option, using a straw to suck out the infected fluid. The doctor inserted 5 tubes into Tom's abdomen and decided to transfer Tom to the long-term intensive care unit. But the day before he was transferred, Tom tried to sit up, causing one of the straws to be misplaced, allowing bacteria to flow into the blood. As a result, Tom immediately suffered septic shock. The doctor quickly pushed him back to the intensive care unit and used a ventilator to help him breathe. After the bacteria entered Tom's blood, they immediately multiplied in his body. Tom is at stake.

At this time, he could not feel anything, fell into a coma, and hallucinated. Tom recalled afterwards that he was crossing the endless desert at the time, as if he had stayed there for 100 years. He also tried to answer 3 questions raised by some saints. In this way, he was in a coma for a while, and he was awake for a while, really dying. It was in this situation that Stephanie overheard the conversation between colleagues on the other end of the phone, saying that Tom has run out of time.

Then, Stephanie said to Tom, if you want to live, you can shake her hand. Interestingly, when Tom heard Stephanie's request, he went into hallucinations again. This time, Tom became a snake. This made Tom very embarrassed. He didn't know how to hold Stephanie's hand because the snake had no hands. But in the end Tom figured out a way. He felt that he could wrap Stephanie's hand with his body. At this moment, Stephanie felt the handshake signal from Tom. At the same time, Stephanie is also eagerly seeking help, including looking for alternative antibiotic treatments online.

During the search, a paper on phage therapy caught Stephanie’s attention. Stephanie is no stranger to the word bacteriophage.She had a brief research on it when she was undergraduate. Bacteriophages are naturally evolved viruses that specifically attack bacteria. They are 100 times smaller than bacteria. Bacteriophages are everywhere. They are found in water, soil, and on our skin. It is estimated that 30 billion bacteriophages enter and exit our bodies every day. A century ago, bacteriophages received widespread attention because people hoped to use it as a possible cure for bacterial infections.

But since the Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, many countries have shelved research on phages. With penicillin and later a new generation of antibiotics, many doctors think they can cope with any bacterial infection. However, Stephanie said sensibly: "We were so wrong."

The super bacteria's strong resistance to antibiotics makes many antibiotics ineffective. Super bacteria have become a threat to human health. Now, people have turned their attention to bacteriophages. Stephanie contacted the relevant US authorities and obtained approval from Tom’s attending doctor, agreeing to give Tom an experimental treatment. But phage treatment must be based on the right medicine to be effective. The question is, there are trillions of phages. How can we find a phage that can deal with the Acinetobacter baumannii infected by Tom?

Stephanie turned to the Internet again to search and contact all possible clues. Cangtian did not bear the painstaking efforts, and finally a Dr. Yang from Texas A&M University responded quickly to her. Dr. Yang also agreed to contribute his laboratory as a command center, and let phage experts from all over the world send samples for testing to see which can deal with the bacteria that Tom infected?

Finally, Stephanie received a variety of phage samples from experts from Switzerland, Belgium, Poland, Georgia, India and other countries. These efforts are all to save Tom's life. In the end, they prepared four bacteriophage preparations for Tom's for experimental treatment. This process took 3 weeks. At this time, Tom has completely relied on machines to sustain his life. The doctor needs to give him 3 medicines to maintain his heartbeat. Tom's life can only be calculated in hours.

Stephanie feels that she has a huge responsibility on her shoulders. If she does not try phage treatment, Tom will undoubtedly die; if the trial is unsuccessful and Tom is dead, Stephanie will be condemned by her conscience throughout her life. But until now, you can only fight back. The first phage preparation entered Tom's body through a cannula in his abdomen. When Tom's condition stabilized a bit, the doctor injected Tom with a second batch of phage preparations, this time the medication was stronger. It was developed by the U.S. Naval Medical Center and was injected directly into Tom’s blood vessel. Direct intravenous administration can be said to set a precedent, because in general, phage therapy is not directly administered intravenously.

At the same time, if the preparation of the phage is not hygienic, it can also cause the patient to die. Stephanie said that phages usually come from dirty places where bacteria are everywhere, such as sewers and the dirtiest places you can imagine.

After receiving the phage treatment for 3 days, Tom woke up. When Tom woke up, his daughter was standing by his hospital bed. "I held her hand and kissed, but I was still unable to speak. I felt very tired and soon fell asleep again." Tom recalled.

Bacteriophage treatment has not been smooth sailing. Soon after the phage treatment, Tom developed septic shock again. The doctor tried different phage preparations for Tom, and the bacteria in Tom's body became resistant to some phage. In fact, in the end, it is not completely clear which phages worked and which did not. Tom stayed in the hospital for 9 months and had 7 septic shocks. When he was discharged from the hospital, Tom was in a wheelchair and was pushed. Because of bedridden for a long time, his muscles have been weak and weak and completely abolished. Doctor

expects Tom to need a total of 4 years of recovery. Three years have passed. Tom had to learn to swallow, talk, stand, walk, etc. again. Tom said that his deepest experience in the long-term hospitalization is the importance of family companionship. Even when he is deeply unconscious, he can often hear other people's speech and perceive things around him.

"I can hear people talking, someone read stories to me, sing to me, and hold my hand." Tom said.

Tom is also the first person to receive intravenous phage injection in North America to treat superbacterial infections. Tom is very lucky because he and his wife have extensive contacts in the medical field and have received help from experts from all over the world.

In 2017, at the 100th anniversary of the discovery of phage at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, Tom’s case was also used as an example to illustrate the effect of phage treatment. Tom’s wife Stephanie began to receive numerous calls for help from all over the world. Many of them are due to family members who have been infected with super bacteria, and they are no longer curable. Therefore, family members who hope to try phage therapy. Stephanie said that their use of phage therapy has indeed saved some lives and saved their limbs.

Stephanie and Tom have since become the promotion and disseminator of phage therapy. Stephanie and Tom also opened an innovative phage therapy center at the University of California, San Diego, which was also the first phage therapy center in North America. One of their missions is to convince people of the urgency of finding a solution to antibiotic resistance.

Stephanie said that unless people take effective action, by 2050, one person will die of superbug infection every three seconds. Stephanie said that she was an epidemiologist of infectious diseases, but her husband nearly died of infectious diseases. It was as if God made a cruel joke with them. This also made Stephanie realize how embarrassed and ashamed that she turned a blind eye to a global danger like the super bacteria crisis.