Michael Kohlhof, Houston, Texas man forced to have double amputation after contracting a severe form of typhus following a single flea bite. How he deteriorated and the struggle ahead.
What were the odds? A Houston man has been forced to undergo a double amputation, having both his arms and parts of his feet severed after contracting a serious disease following a flea bite.
Michael Kohlhof, a handyman and pet-sitter, was in San Antonio helping his mother recuperate from a surgery when he woke up with numbness in his feet.
‘We thought it was the flu,’ his mother, J’Leene Hardaway, explains in a GoFundMe set up to help pay for her son’s expenses. Except her son’s condition continued to deteriorate, with the son getting sicker and sicker, before having to be rushed to hospital, KHOU11 reported.
Seek immediate help if one notices swelling around a bite mark
The 35-year-old man went into septic shock, and by the next day, was on a ventilator, dialysis, antibiotics, beta-blockers, and more medications as the mans organs began failing.
‘He almost died once or twice,’ his brother Greg Kohlhof told KEN5 news. ‘They were worried about him being brain dead.’
Medics believe Kohlhof’s capitulation was brought about as a result of typhus, a disease caused by a bacteria carried by infected fleas. Symptoms include fever and chills, body aches and muscle pain, loss of appetite, and vomiting, according to the CDC.
Although the ‘flea-borne typhus is a rare disease in the United States’ the CDC does say it’s found in Hawaii, California, and Texas, and that ‘untreated [typhus] can cause severe illness and damage to one or more organs, including the liver, kidneys, heart, lungs, and brain.’
Typically, people bitten by infected fleas seek medical help after finding a swelling or a rash around the bite mark, but Greg said his brother didn’t experience any symptoms until it was too late.
‘Don’t ignore the symptoms and get to a doctor!’
Hardaway explains that her son was ‘the victim of a severe and traumatic bite from one single flea — with unimaginable consequences. His hands and feet had dry gangrene,’ which the Mayo Clinic describes as the ‘death of body tissue.’
Doctors amputated both of Kohlhof’s hands ‘up to his forearms,’ his mother writes.
He’s already lost his toes and parts of his feet. ‘As of now, we do not know how much of his feet are salvageable,’ Hardaway adds about her son, whom she says was also an avid volunteer at community gardens and festivals.
‘Me and him talked about it. It’s not your hands that do all these great things. It’s your mind,’ Greg told KEN5 News. ‘You’ll just have to find a new avenue to exercise it.’
His brother also said that Kohlhof wants people to be aware of what he’s going through so they can protect themselves.
‘I think he also wants people to know this kind of stuff is out there. There are fleas, there are diseases, but just be cautious, be aware, don’t be afraid to live your life.’
Cautioned Houston man, Gordon Greenleaf who also contracted typhus from a flea bite 4 years ago in what local officials warn is a rising concern in the area: ‘Don’t ignore the symptoms and get to a doctor!’
His partner, Alishpa Masood, told KHOU11 that ‘he has gone beyond our expectations as far as strength and bravery. He has a really positive outlook that we’re all really proud of.’
Kohlhof’s family is stressing the importance of seeking medical care.
‘If it were 48 hours later,’ Masood said, ‘he would have not made it.’
