Inspirational story

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p><a href=“http://www.komotv.com/news/health/7709997.html[/url]”>http://www.komotv.com/news/health/7709997.html&lt;/a&gt; (pic)</p>

<p>One-Limbed Student to Get Medical Degree</p>

<p>LOS ANGELES (May 27) - A woman who lost both legs and an arm as a child is poised to become a doctor for children.</p>

<p>Kellie Lim, who became a triple amputee at age 8 because of bacterial meningitis, is to graduate from UCLA’s medical school on Friday, and she plans to focus on childhood allergies and infectious disease.</p>

<p>The Michigan native, 26, does not use a prosthetic arm and manages to perform most medical procedures - including giving injections and taking blood - with one arm. She walks on a pair of prosthetic legs.</p>

<p>“Just having that experience of being someone so sick and how devastating that can be - not just for me but for my family too - gives me a perspective that other people don’t necessarily have,” Lim said.</p>

<p>Raised by a blind mother in suburban Detroit, Lim went through years of wheelchairs and painful therapy after toxic shock from the meningitis claimed her limbs and three fingertips on her remaining hand.</p>

<p>Lim recently saw her childhood medical file, and learned that doctors had given her an 85 percent chance of dying of the meningitis. Just five months after the amputations, Lim returned to a normal school. Born right-handed, she learned to write and work with her left.</p>

<p>“I hate failing,” she said. “It’s one of those things that’s so ingrained in me.”</p>

<p>Lim’s teachers and fellow students said she exudes a calm that makes them and her patients forget her physical circumstances.</p>

<p>“She has an aura of competence about her that you don’t worry,” said Dr. Elijah Wasson, one of Lim’s supervisors. “At first you notice her hand is not there. But after about five minutes, she is so comfortable and so competent that you take her at face value.”</p>

<p>Lim will begin a residency program at the UCLA Medical Center.</p>

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<p>Wow – that is impressive, and I think it’s also a testament to the medical school’s willingness to support her with whatever it took.</p>

<p>On an aside, to BRM or $0.02: Why would meningitis lead to limb amputation? Do you think they meant that she had an infection that was also causing meningitis? Neisseria, perhaps?</p>

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<p>Wow, thats really impressive. I hope she has a successful medical career.</p>

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<p><a href=“Medical and health information”>Medical and health information;

<p>Two enzymes in meningitis bacteria which prevent the body from successfully fighting off the disease, and make the infection extremely virulent, have been identified in new research just published.</p>

<p>The study found that the two enzymes - which have distinct functions - work together to hamper the body’s efforts to fight off the disease. Together they repair damage done to the meningitis bacteria’s DNA by the body’s white blood cells, which are sent to fight the infection.</p>

<p>Understanding the part these enzymes play in the process that enables the bacteria to elude the body’s natural defences could eventually help scientists develop novel new treatments for meningitis and the septicaemia it can cause. Both are extremely serious conditions with a high mortality rate, which take hold quickly and are difficult to treat - sometimes resulting in extreme measures such as limb amputation.</p>

<p>When the meningitis bacteria enter the bloodstream, the body’s natural defences send white blood cells to fight the infection. They ingest the bacteria and subject them to oxidative stress. Oxidative stress damages the base chemical compounds of the bacteria’s DNA. This should lead to cell death and the defeat of the bacteria. However, the virulent meningitis bacteria are able to repair this harmful damage and are therefore unaffected by the body’s defences.</p>

<p>…the rest at the website.</p>

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<p>This certainly confirms that it’s sometimes usual, but I’m afraid I’m still not totally clear. I had thought amputation was for a situation where there was an infection in the limb, which is not what meningitis (inflammation of the lining of the CNS) is. Is it possible that the infection starts off as meningitis, and then either the medical team or the body’s natural defenses can sometimes fight it off there but not necessarily in the limbs, leaving it as a limb infection?</p>

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<p>I went to emedicine to get more info. (<a href=“http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic1412.htm[/url]”>http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic1412.htm&lt;/a&gt;)</p>

<p>In meningococcemia, a severe bleeding tendency often simultaneously exists with severe thrombosis in the microvasculature of the skin, often in a glove-and-stocking distribution that can necessitate amputation of digits or limbs. Clinicians face a dilemma because supplying platelets, coagulation factors, and fibrinogen may worsen the process. Meningococcal infection affects the following three main pathways of coagulation:</p>

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<p>That makes sense. (Peripheral thrombosis is a correlated condition caused by the same bacterium and often associated.)</p>

<p>Sweet. Nice legwork.</p>