I’m watching the 20th anniversary broadcast of Lonesome Dove (great book, great mini-series adaptation, and Robert Duvall is one of the Greatest. Actors. Ever. But I digress.)
Anyhoo, a character gets shot in the leg with arrows. He developed sepsis in the leg that was shot, and it’s amputated. But he also develops sepsis in the other leg, which was uninjured. The implication is that he has a chance of surviving if he has the other leg amputated, too.
Could sepsis spread from one leg to the other like that, without spreading all through the body first?
:smack::DYa know–I have been obsessed with “Lonesome Dove” for years. To the point that I have a room in my house devoted to it–wish I could post pics! I have a replica of the sign, as well as giclees of Gus and Call. Anyway, I agree that some of the dramatic points of the story are really a little wrong. I always thought it a little strange that Gus would get an infection in one leg, and have it travel to the other. I think it would more likely cause a sepsis (entire body). Just like the “water moccasin nest” that is a classic urban legend. I remember hearing that back in the 70s in several disparate lakes across the country. You just can’t get too technical about it. Mr. McMurtry has a tendency to bend history to fit his stories. I live down here in “Lonesome Dove”, myself–and I really don’t believe Captain King or Mr. McAllen traveled around here with blue shoats!! I would give my (husband’s) left n** to meet Bobby Duvall. Law I love that man!! Make sure you read the other books and see the other dvds. They’re not up to the caliber of “Lonesome Dove”, but they are entertaining. It’ll sorta give you a fuller picture of the whole saga. I think the last one, “Streets of Laredo” is probably the best. But read and see them all. I think you can skip the TV series, though. “Lonesome Dove” is now available on blu-ray—I have a copy but haven’t seen it yet. There is also a book featuring photographs from the filming–"A Book of Photographs from ‘Lonesome Dove’, by Bill Wittliff, published by the University of Texas Press. Sorry if I’m a little verbose, but this story is an obsession with me and Mr. HP–LOL!
IANAD and I have no medical background. Having said that. . .
There have been several high-profile medical stories in the past few years in which a patient went into a hospital for some reason, picked up a bad bug, which settled in the extemities, and ended up requiring various levels of amputation.
In fact, Gil Rossellini, younger brother of Isabella, died from complications from an ongoing battle with the aftereffects. In his case, the doctors think it started from a nick on his neck. The bacteria then settled in his extremities. He lost the use of both legs, and most of the use of one arm. There have been other cases, though, in which the limbs were so ravaged, amputations were required.
I did not see the show, and I am not quite sure what “sepsis in the leg” is.
I assume the leg in question had a severe local infection, probably progressive. A classic presentation of such an infection would be an ascending infection from clostridium. Effects are both local–destruction of contiguous tissues–and systemic, from various inflammatory mediators and even the organisms themselves out in the bloodstream.
While bacteria in the bloodstream can seed distal areas, it’s unlikely a septic wound in one leg would begin to involve the other leg unless the original inciting event that set up the problem in one leg also involved the other leg. If the other leg was healthy to begin with, it’s not likely it would start to develop a problem. In a classic case of progressive clostridial gangrene, the patient would die of generalized septicemia long before the infection spread contiguously up one leg, over the pelvic region and down the other leg (hence the amputation back to healthy tissue).
Thank you, Chief Pedant! I was hoping you would come along and clear things up.
(And as for my poorly-worded description, I thought sepsis and septicemia were the same thing, but I see upon further reading that they are not. Ignorance fought.)
You go, Freck!!!