Sanford woman loses thumb to rare bacterial infection and saved through collaborative effort

The husband of a Sanford woman is thankful she’s alive after a near death experience with a rare, bacterial infection.

The nightmare saga unfolded starting back on June 6th. Kevin Russ says after he left home early that morning, his wife Tammy had cut her thumb removing an ingrown hangnail.

"Three o’clock that afternoon she calls me and tells me she’s got something real bad going on with her hand that she was going to get it looked at," said Kevin Russ.

He says she got medicine from an urgent care center. "Some how it was misdiagnosed," said Russ. The medicine she received was ineffective.

Russ says later, she collapsed in the bathroom with her hand swollen and black. He called 911 and she was taken to Central Carolina Hospital.

"They knew immediately that something was bad-wrong and I’ll tell you, they got the wheels in motion," said Russ.

"Necrotizing Fasciitis", said Central Carolina Hospital orthopedic surgeon Dr. Richard Slusher. He added, "We don’t see it very often, especially in this small community like this."

Slusher says transporting Tammy Russ by helicopter to Duke or UNC was considered, but discouraged. "It would be too late. Things would get into the blood system. They get bacteremic septicemic, go into sepsis and they can go into septic shock and die," he explained.

The staff had constant contact with other experts.

Kevin Russ asked Slusher what he was going to do for Tammy. He said, "First, I’m gonna try to save her life. If I’m successful, I’m gonna try to save her hand. "He saved her life on the operating table," said Russ.

Later a Duke hand surgeon took care of her wounds with skin grafts. "They had to amputate her thumb, unfortunately, because it was too infected and we couldn’t save it," said Slusher.

A minor loss, given the odds that were against her. Her husband said, "Those guys knew their game. They knew how to execute the plan. They pulled it off man!"

According to Physio-pedia.com, in the U.S., Necrotizing Fasciitis" occurs in only 1 out of 100-thousand people per year.