PA: Man ends up on ECMO after parrot bite

[Emily]

This might not have been related to the parrot bite at all, but it was a new parrot in the household. The story doesn't say whether or not it was an imported bird or how it was housed prior to bringing it home.

He was very lucky his wife pushed for ECMO. His success led to the H1N1 patients being treated with ECMO, too, and they were benefiting.

http://www.dailylocal.com/general-news/20140528/kennett-man-survives-mysterious-illness

By CANDICE MONHOLLAN
Posted: 05/28/14, 4:09 PM EDT

...

Burkes, who lives on Candlewyck Drive in Avondale, kept fighting and once he reached Jefferson, his lungs, which when X-rayed at Jennersville were black and completely clear, had turned almost completely white.

?They immediately took X-rays in bed,? he said. ?My lungs were so white and had two black spots about the size of a quarter on each lung. That?s all my capacity was.?

Burkes showed individual signs of different illnesses, but tested negative to each and every one, leaving the team of doctors working on him completely stumped as to what was wrong.

All they knew was Burkes was continuing to go downhill rapidly.

At one point Burkes was in the isolation wing along with two patients diagnosed with N1H1 Swine Flu. Doctors had to contact the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about his condition...