A 58-year old lawyer presents in the emergency room with

Last updated: 7/30/2022

A 58-year old lawyer presents in the emergency room with headache, irritability, generalized muscle pain and uncontrollable back spasms. He has become very restless and worried because he has had the back spasms that afternoon and they became extremely painful. He injured himself about 10 days earlier, puncturing his left arm with a nail from an old barn he is tearing. The wound has produced moderate quantities of pus, but he has been keeping it clean. What is your diagnosis and which organism is causing it? Botulism caused by Clostridium botulinum Necrotizing fasciitis caused by Streptococcus pyrogenes Tetanus caused by Clostridium tetani Boils caused by Staphylococcus aureus