My sewer hose could have killed me! READ THIS

[darjacob]

First, let me say that I have been RVing for 25 years. I’m not a newbie. Second, this is not a story someone told me or I read somewhere. This happened to me last week.

On Sunday morning I went out to hook up the sewer line on the RV. One of the ends came off so I screwed it back on. There was a bare piece of wire sticking out of the end of the hose. It’s the wire they put around the outside of the hose for strength. It poked my hand between the index finger and thumb. I went inside and used peroxide and antibiotic. It was a tiny puncture so I couldn’t really clean it very well.

The next morning, my hand was really swollen and hurting. I was running a fever as well. So I went out to the VA hospital in North Vegas. They x-rayed my hand and started me on IV antibiotics. About 30 minutes later the Dr. came in and said it’s not swelling, it’s gas in the wound. He said he called an ambulance and was having me transferred to a medical center that had a hand surgeon.

When I arrived and after a number of hours, they took me into the OR for hand surgery. The surgeon cut my hand open and scraped it out. He said the bacteria created hard modules in the bottom of the wound that he had to break up and scrape out. He said I was hours from becoming sepsis. There were two red streaks going up my arm indicating it was spreading.

I spent 5 days in the hospital while they tried to identify what the bacteria was and how to treat it. They put two bags of IV antibiotics in me every 6 hours for 5 days. Finally, they identified 2 antibiotics that this bacterium was least resistant to. So I’m back at the RV taking 4 pills a day for the next 2 weeks and very thankful that my wife insisted I go to the doctor.

So it turned out that this is a rather rare bacteria found in feces. The infectious disease doctor said they know what it is but have never seen it in a patient. This is a 800 bed medical center. They had to grow the bacteria and then test to see what antibiotics would work. To make matters worse, the Dr said not all antibiotics have a pill form and need to be administered through Iv.

This bacteria, Aeromonas Hydrophila is aggressive with a high mortality rate if treatment is delayed.

I AWALYS use leather gloves when messing with sewer lines... except this time. My suggestion is, ditch the nitril gloves and only use good leather gloves.

[brobox]

THANK YOU, for the great heads up. I have been lax using my heavy commercial grade rubber gloves, not anymore. I ran into a guy a couple of years ago that the same thing happened. One week in the hospital because some feces got in a tiny cut and he didn't know it.

[Topperace]

Ouch!! to say the least.... glad to hear you are ok after that ordeal.
Good to hear your story so others can head the advice

[Old-Biscuit]

There is 'stuff' out there everywhere

Had an open scrape on my hand between thumb & forefinger
Was redoing the Irrigation piping barehanded.
Pumped river water is source for the Irrigation System

Next Day......hand swollen/red so off to VA ER.
Yep.....had to get it cleaned out, shot full of antibiotics, bandage up and follow up with oral antibiotics for 14 days

'Stuff' is out there.

Glad to hear you are now well!!!!
Cautionary tale for sure

[RVFunlovers]

Thanks for sharing the info and warning.
Thank God for your wife and you listening to her.

That is some real “Dr House show” stuff you went through.

Back to the think gloves for dealing with server connections.

[Bobby F]

Makes me think about mixing a bucket of dilute bleach and soaking my hose ends for a bit. Yuck. Thanks for sharing.

[SoonToBeFT]

So good of you to make us "aware". Think there'll be a lot more folks using thick gloves after this when doing the dump. Thank you

[buddy110]

Damn! Who would think something like that would happen. I take so much for grated all the time. So sorry to hear your troubles. Thank you for sharing this! Godspeed, my friend!

[shootist]

I am so thankful you posted this. I’m not the type to go to a doc until I drop to my knees in pain. This is a wake up. There’s been more than one thread on here about dumping and wearing gloves

[YC1]

Wow, thanks for sharing.

Saw a man that got a couple of small splinters in his hand. He lost most of two fingers withing 48 hours.

And we think Covid was bad.

Brother (paramedic), had his cat scratch his hand. That evening a black streak began up his arm. To the ER and they put him on IV antibiodics as well. We had to force him to go to the ER.

[K Charles]

That wire was sticking out of one of our hoses and I switched it with a spare that I had. That hose will get put in the trash the next day the dump is open.

[Bill Gail]

Great heads-up .

When dumping the holding tanks , I use kevlar gloves with a nitrile coating . They have a puncture and cut rating of 4 on a scale of 1-5 . This will stop a hypodermic needle .

My Safety team found them when researching gloves for our job site clean up crew .

The gloves can be machine washed and tumble dry .

Not cheap , but what's your life worth .

[powerboatr]

WHOLLY cow
who would have thought
thanks for the info
and GET WELL FAST


i think double glove is now a leather and glove




you just never know

[bobmar]

Yuck…..Excellent reminder, thank you!!! Glad your ok.