Please tell me this isn t happening exclaimed Sayen I m so

Last updated: 2/8/2024

Please tell me this isn t happening exclaimed Sayen I m so sorry said Dr Sheng your grandfather s foot is infected Because of his diabetes he has poor circulation and by the time he finally sought medical attention it was too late We ll have to amputate the foot before the infection spreads further Don t you dare blame this on my grandfather Do you know why he didn t seek medical attention He doesn t have good health insurance He can t afford to run to the doctor every week I realize that There is nothing else we can do We have tried several antibiotic combinations The bacteria causing the infection are resistant to all of them He is stable for now but we re running out of time Ok I get it Can you please hold off on the surgery I want to talk to a friend Sayen turned to her grandfather Achak I have a friend who told me that his aunt s leg was saved using some weird treatment Let me ask him Achak looked at his granddaughter I know you want to help my child But it s too late No it s not please just let me talk to Daviti Achak stared out of the window of his hospital room Sayen saw him give just the slightest nod She raced out of the room to find a spot where her cell phone would have adequate reception Daviti It s Sayen I remember you told me how they saved you aunt s leg something about a virus They re about to amputate my grandfather s foot but his favorite thing to do is walk and climb I want to save his foot Yes My brother is a researcher at Eliava the Georgian bacteriophage institute They have the largest collection of bacteriophage in the world Before there were antibiotics treating wound infections with phage was more common But since the introduction of antibiotics research into phage treatment isn t done as much anymore I took my aunt to Georgia and they saved her leg How did they do that They took samples from her wound and cultured the bacteria to figure out what types of bacteria were causing the infection Then they cultured the bacteria mixing them with some of the bacteriophage they had success with in the past They made a mixture of a few of the bacteriophage that formed plaques on the culture and they applied that to my aunt s wound Every couple of days they would take new samples and try again Why did they do that asked Sayen Because sometimes the bacteria can become resistant to the phage It s much less likely if they use a mixture of phage but they wanted to keep track Her wound started clearing up by the next day It did take a while but they managed to save the leg by cleaning the wound regularly and applying mixtures of phage It s called phage therapy Do you think I can send them a sample from my uncle s leg in the mail No you cannot do that It s against the law to send bacteria through the mail Especially since they are obviously resistant to antibiotics The only way to do this is for your uncle to travel to Georgia But my uncle can t travel he s too sick Thanks Daviti I m going to talk to the doctor Sayen returned to the room Dr Sheng was still there just finishing up his examination of her grandfather She relayed to him what she had just learned Your uncle doesn t have time to travel to Georgia As far as I know there is no laboratory in this country that has such an extensive selection of phage and it is really really hard to get FDA approval for this type of therapy Well I want to try Who should I call first