Florida
Florida man contracts flesh-eating infection from bite from relative
A Florida man nearly lost his leg when he contracted a nasty flesh-eating bacterial infection — after being bitten by a family member during a fight.
Donnie Adams, of Tampa Bay, developed a small, painful bump after a relative sunk their teeth into his right thigh as he attempted to break up a tussle at a family gathering in February.
Assuming it was just a harmless lesion, he took himself to get a tetanus shot and a course of antibiotics, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
However, three days later, Adams could barely walk.
The 52-year-old returned to Florida Northside Hospital in St. Petersburg and was immediately rushed into emergency surgery.
“I would’ve never imagined that a human bite would turn into something so horrific as a flesh-eating bacteria,” Adams told WFLA.
When wound care specialist, Fritz Brink, made his first incision, a gray ooze leaked from Adams’ leg.
Each additional cut revealed bright red, rotting flesh from his knee to his groin, Brink told The Tampa Bay Times.
About 70% of the tissue in Adams’ thigh had to be removed.
He then required follow-up surgery to remove the remaining infected flesh.
The flesh-eating bacteria, known as necrotizing fasciitis, kills tissue surrounding muscles and nerves.
While common among swimmers in tropical climates, doctors had never seen a case in which they were sure came from another human’s mouth.
Brink told The Tampa Bay Times that while it’s a unique transmission of the deadly germ, human mouths are a perfect climate for bacteria to thrive.
“A human bite is dirtier than a dog bite as far as the kinds of bacteria that grow,” the wound care specialist said. “Normal bacteria in an abnormal spot can be a real problem.”
If Adams had put off going back to the hospital for another day, Brink said the infection likely would have spread to his abdomen, putting him in danger of septic shock — which can be deadly.
Adams lost his own brother to septic shock, WFLA reported.
“If I would’ve waited and waited until the next day after our second visit, there was a chance I would’ve lost my leg,” Adams told the outlet.
After spending three weeks recovering from surgery at the hospital, Adams had to undergo six months of additional treatment for the serious wound, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Even still, Brink told the paper Adams’ positive attitude and strict adherence to a diet plan halved his anticipated recovery time.
He learned how to treat his wounds himself, and Brink continued treat to Adams even after his insurance stopped covering treatment.
Adams, who works at a funeral home, attributes his healing to prayer and meditation.
He has since buried the hatchet with his relatives.
“The parties involved are very sorrowful,” he said.
Still, Adams’ leg is heavily scarred and he suffers occasional pain — but he is grateful for the doctors that saved his leg.
Florida
How to Watch: Louisville Cardinals at Florida State Seminoles
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A week removed from falling to Kentucky in the Battle of the Bluegrass, the Louisville men’s basketball program is back in action, traveling to Florida State for their first road game in ACC play.
While the Cardinals might have lost to their most hated rival in their last time out, they certainly gave the Wildcats a run for their money. Despite having only eight healthy scholarship players, Louisville kept within striking distance of Kentucky for the majority of the game before ultimately falling 93-85 in Rupp Arena.
As for the Seminoles, year 23 under head coach Leonard Hamilton is off to a solid start. While FSU is currently six games over .500 and heading into their matchup with Louisville on a two-game win streak, they’re 0-3 against teams ranked in KenPom’s top-100, including an 84-74 overtime loss at NC State.
This will be the 54th all-time meeting between Louisville and Florida State, with the Cardinals owning a 35-18 advantage. UofL won 101-92 back on Feb. 3, 2024 in the last matchup, snapping a seven-game losing streak to the Seminoles.
(Photo of Terrence Edwards Jr.: Jordan Prather – Imagn Images)
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Florida
More South Florida school zones will be getting speed cameras – how it's been going
If you don’t look carefully, you could easily miss the cameras set up outside schools. They, however, are watching you, and if you’re going at least 10 miles over the speed limit, you will receive a $100 surprise in the mail.
“If you don’t want to get one of those violations just stay within the speed limit, very simple,” said Village of Pinecrest Police Chief Jason Cohen.
Pinecrest and South Miami were the first cities in South Florida to take advantage of a new state law allowing automated cameras to catch speeders in school zones. Since their systems went online in October, they’ve sent out about 7,400 citations in South Miami and about 5,800 in Pinecrest.
“It’s too early to say from the data on the overall impact it’s going to have around the schools, but we believe it’s going to change peoples’ driving patterns, that they’re going to be cognizant that they’re near a school and they’re going to automatically slow down, that’s the goal,” Cohen said.
Diane Gilmore has been a security monitor for decades at Palmetto Senior High School. She said she sees speeders fly past the school all the time as students are trying to cross the street, and she’s glad the cameras have been installed.
“I think they did a good idea because a lot of times, they be going across the street, these cars don’t respect us at all, they come fast and I say it ain’t careful, somebody gonna end up getting killed,” Gilmore said.
Students spilling out of school seem to appreciate the cameras.
“I think it’s good, ‘cause it controls the drivers so the drivers don’t speed and especially in a school zone,” said Nicholas Henriquez, a senior at Palmetto who drives to school.
Not everyone agrees. Christian Gutierrez picks up a student regularly and he’s not impressed with the cameras’ impact.
“Even speedbumps, I feel like, stops speeding,” Gutierrez said. “More than the cameras, yeah, for sure.”
The school zone cameras operate only on school days, starting a half hour before school starts and ending a half hour after school ends, no matter what the speed limit is during those hours. The police departments make $39 for each citation issued.
“But I think it’s important to highlight that the funds coming in have to be used for public safety,” Chief Cohen said. “Anything that can help make our city safer, especially around the children and the schools, we looked at it as a win.”
Soon, police departments in Miami Gardens, West Miami, Davie and Plantation will be starting up their own school zone camera systems. Miami-Dade Police have also installed cameras outside eleven schools with many more to follow. Cohen predicts almost all South Florida police departments will join the trend.
Florida
South Florida’s beachfront buildings found to be sinking faster than expected
A team of mechanical, architectural and environmental engineers, geoscientists, and geoinformation specialists affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. and Germany has found that many of the tall, heavy buildings along the coast of South Florida are sinking into the ground much faster than was expected.
In their study published in the journal Earth and Space Science, the group compared satellite images over several years to learn more about ongoing subsidence along multiple beachfronts.
Prior research has shown that many factors can lead to subsidence, in which the altitude of a given parcel of land declines. Natural causes include water movement, earthquakes and gravity. Manmade causes include the heaviness of the built environment, including large buildings, and activities including fracking and landscaping.
In this new study, the researchers noted that the many tall buildings along many parts of the coast in South Florida appeared to be extremely heavy. They wondered if adding so much weight might be causing the ground beneath them to sink.
To find out, the researchers obtained precise satellite imagery for several of the most popular beaches in South Florida and compared 35 buildings standing on them over time. Modern satellite imagery is so precise it can detect changes in altitude of just a few centimeters. The researchers found that every one of the buildings they measured was sinking, ranging from 2 to 8 cm over the years 2016 to 2023, and that most of them were sinking faster than expected.
The research team also found that there were differences in subsidence between beach areas. The worst, for example, was occurring on Sunny Isles Beach; after that was Surfside, site of the collapse of a 12-story building back in 2021. Miami Beach, they noted, was experiencing the least amount of subsidence.
Because of the building collapse three years ago, the researchers took a closer look at Surfside to find out if subsidence may have been a contributing cause and found no evidence. Even if the building had been sinking, they note, it should not have led to structural damage unless it was sinking unevenly, with one part of the ground under the building sinking faster than another.
They suggest more work is required to determine if that is happening to any of the buildings in South Florida, and if so, to warn their owners.
More information:
Farzaneh Aziz Zanjani et al, InSAR Observations of Construction‐Induced Coastal Subsidence on Miami’s Barrier Islands, Florida, Earth and Space Science (2024). DOI: 10.1029/2024EA003852
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South Florida’s beachfront buildings found to be sinking faster than expected (2024, December 19)
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