Your paper probably saved my life

By avidly reading the Grimsby Lincoln News an Orange County man not only has his life but a killer idea for a Halloween costume.

Jim Gauderman has been reading The News for the past five years after he became acquainted with someone from the area. Wanting to learn more about the area, he started subscribing to the paper and has been an avid reader ever since. After becoming ill after a hospital stay to treat a kidney stone, Gauderman was unable to grab the paper, which was piling up in his P.O. box. Having learned about Gauderman’s plight, a friend from Smithville (who Gauderman wanted to remain anonymous) sent him a story from The News on the outbreak of Clostridium difficile at some of Niagara’s hospitals.

Gauderman received the e-mail while in his doctor’s office. He showed his doctor, demanded a stool sample be taken and awaited a diagnosis. Fifteen hours later, Gauderman was diagnosed with C. difficile.

“Your paper probably saved my life,” said Gauderman from California. “That article described exactly what I was experiencing — abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever. The bottom line is, if I hadn’t gotten that e-mail, and I had already lost 20 pounds by then, I was on my way out, I absolutely was. And to the person who sent it to me, by sending that they probably saved my life.”

C. difficile is a bacterium that causes diarrhea and other serious intestinal conditions. It is the most common cause of infectious diarrhea in hospitalized patients in the industrialized world.

Gauderman first went to hospital July 26 to pass a kidney stone. He was there for four days and at some point came down with an infection. His time at home was spent dealing with extreme stomach pain, aches and diarrhea. Four days after he left hospital he was right back there, diagnosed with a urinary tract infection. Doctors began pumping him full of antibiotics. The diarrhea was getting worse, up to 15 times a day, and he was getting weaker. The normally active 70-year-old Gauderman was rapidly losing weight.

Doctors tested him for diverticulitis, appendicitis and colon cancer all the while pumping his body with antibiotics. Finally, on Aug. 11, Gauderman was tested for C. difficile and the diagnosis came. An infectious disease doctor was called in and he ordered Gauderman taken off antibiotics immediately.

“They just kept giving me antibiotics, which is like throwing gasoline on a raging fire,” he said. “It’s the worse possible thing. I saw the infectious disease doctor yesterday and he told me from now on I can’t take any antibiotics without first talking to an infectious disease specialist or I will have this again.”

He was then given medication to treat the bacterial infection and after three days, things finally began to improve. He stayed on the medication for 10 days and all was well, for two weeks.

Then the symptoms started to return. He was on medication for another 10 days, only to have C. difficile return for a third time. Gauderman is now taking a double-dose of the medication, which costs $62.50 a pill which is luckily covered by insurance, for 14 days.

“It’s really bad when you have to get diagnosed from a newspaper article 3,000 miles away,” said Gauderman. “But the bottom line is, it’s what made the difference and thanks to you guys, I’m still alive.”

Gauderman also credits the newspaper with his Halloween costume for this year. He plans to dress up in Night of the Living Dead style with a T-shirt reading “Got C. diff?” and “The Diffinator” on the back.

“That story, and the person who sent it to me through your paper, probably saved my life,” he said. “And you know how serious it is, you’ve had death there.”

The Niagara Health System declared an outbreak of Clostridium difficile in May at its St. Catharines General site and in June at Greater Niagara General Hospital in Niagara Falls and its Welland Hospital site. In total, 36 people have died.