I know this is a bizarre question, but please bear with me. If someone by some chance ingested some gangrenous tissue, would the person become sick? would it make its way to the kidneys and cause death like gangrene in the tissue?
It seems to me that the most likely consequence would be that of food poisoning, similar to ingesting any other spoiled meat.
Gangrene thrives in low oxygen environments, so wouldn’t do well in the stomach where there’s lots of air. Having smelled gangrenous flesh, I don’t really see how anyone would manage to ingest it anyway. Rapid regurgitation would be the most likely effect.
QtM, MD
sorry, it is apretty bizarre question.
From This article
Most of these are aerobic, and so will do well in the presence of oxygen (sorry, Quadgop). The key is a lack of blood circulation in the affected area. Without the immune respose a healthy blood supply brings, these bacteria and other organisms can run rampant, consuming the unprotected flesh. A normal, healthy stomach has a rich blood supply, as well as acid and enzymes which help comtrol the growth of ingested bacteria. As such, it’s my belief that ingestion of gangrenous tissue would be harmless under normal circumstances.
Q.U.E.D., sorry back atcha, but while some of those organisms which cause gangrene may live and reproduce in vitro in the presence of oxygen (i.e. be aerobic), they require a low oxygen environment to become pathogenic, i.e. to cause an actual septic infection. And the most dangerous form of gangrene, gas gangrene is caused by clostridium, whis is anaerobic. In fact, hyperbaric oxygen is used to treat cases of gas gangrene.
Do you know why lack of blood circulation is the key to infections, as you stated in your above post? Why, its because impaired blood circulation causes tissue hypoxia! 
QtM, MD
Hey, now! Watch it with those extra letters in people’s names, buddy. Give a guy an extra U and pretty soon he’s got a reputation.
Nevertheless, we can agree that eating gangrenous flesh is both harmless and disgusting. Now, who wants to put the theory to the test?
Where’s a pukey smiley when you need one?
It’s fun watching you two “flesh” this one out …
The TV show “Fear Factor” has already made contestants ingest bile, slugs, maggoty cheese… could gangrenous flesh be next?
Mmmmmmmmm…maggoty cheese!
Lol, I don’t know if you even realize it but you put in extra ‘U’ in his name first, a mistake that I once fell victim to which resulted in me getting called Crisco :D.
So Qadgop, what exactly is it about the lack of oxygen that makes these little guys thrive? Surely they need some oxygen to get by on, right? Or are they [seems highly unlikely] photosynthetic/plant-like bacteria?
Not only do anaerobic bacteria not need “some oxygen to get by on,” oxygen is toxic to them. Nor do they use photosynthesis–they generally use fermentation-type processes for their metabolism.
From this site:
Anaerobes have a long history. They were prevalent in the early Earth atmosphere that lacked oxygen. They survive to this day in oxygen-free environments, such as the soil.
If I remember correctly, aerobic critters like you and I are able to produce 38 molecules of ATP (the cell’s energy-storage medium) from each molecule of glucose, while anaerobes are only able to produce 2. It seems wasteful to not get those extra 36 ATPs, but apparently yeasts, bacteria, and the like have more modest needs than us. Since we’re evolved to need all of that energy, we can’t survive anaerobically.
I seem to recall that there are also opportunistic aerobes, which can survive on just anaerobic respiration, but which will use oxygen whenever given the chance.