Model lost her leg because of a tampon
An American model loses a leg after being ill with toxic shock syndrome. The cause: a tampon. The bacterial infection TSS is extremely rare, but when it occurs, it can be dangerous to life threatening.
"Vogue" model Lauren wasser is 24 years old when she is put into an artificial coma. Like millions of other women they used for years tampons. Since 3 October 2012, they no longer do that.
On that day, she suddenly felt unwell, she tells the vice, as if they would get a flu. In the evening she was as slain, went to bed and fell asleep. Only the barking of her dog, she woke up again. She has no idea how long she had slept - the dog had made several times in the apartment. Completely weakened, she called her mother, who wanted to call an ambulance. But Lauren wanted to sleep only.
She promised to call again the next morning. When the call failed to materialize, the mother sent a girlfriend along with the police over at her daughter. They found Lauren prone on the ground.
With nearly 42 degrees fever Lauren was hospitalized. Their bodies were short of failure before, she had suffered a massive heart attack. The doctors tried to stabilize without success. A Infectiologist was called in, he is now the crucial question: "Does she have a tampon in itself" Had she. Shortly after, she was transferred to the artificial coma. It was unclear whether she would wake up.
TSS is extremely rare - but dangerous
The lab report of the tampon was clear: toxic shock syndrome (TSS). It is an infectious disease with the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, which leads to severe circulatory and organ failure. Typical symptoms include sudden onset of headache, dizziness, hypotension and a high fever and sunburn-like rash. With one case per 200,000 inhabitants, the infection is extremely rare. However, if it on, it can run serious or even fatal.
The bacterium occurs almost everywhere in nature - on the skin and in the mucous membranes of animals, on the skin of people in the aquatic environment and in food. The bacteria give off disease-causing toxins. Most people make in their lifetime of antibodies against them, but a few are not capable of doing.
As a risk group for TSS include tampon-users - they account for about half of the known cases of TSS. The bacteria can about the hygiene products easily enter the body. It is therefore important to wash your hands before inserting or using an applicator. The tampon cover should be undamaged.
About one third of all women, the bacterium is already in small amounts in the vaginal flora. But only one percent of its strains produced toxic substances and for the bacterium must also multiply only. This happens when a fully gesogener with blood tampon is not changed too long. Gynecologists therefore recommend to always use the smallest pad to change it on a regular basis and at night to resort to binding.
Lauren wasser has changed their tampons always regularly, she says. In the morning, the afternoon and evening. So also on 3 October. She believes in a different cause.
"The problem has been known for 30 years"
In the 1980s, among other things, the company Proctor & Gamble brought extrasaugfähige tampons on the market. In it she processed carboxymethylcellulose and polyester particles. According to a study at Yale University in 2011 it is with carboxymethylcellulose something like with the ingredients of a petri dish, which served to pre-breeding of bacteria. When the superabsorbent tampons were taken shortly afterwards with several deaths by TSS in connection, Proctor & Gamble took it from the market.
As Lauren wasser awoke from a coma, she did not know what had happened. The only thing she saw very clearly, was burning in her hands and feet. They were afflicted with gangrene, because they were no longer supplied with blood. Using oxygen therapy to try to activate the blood flow in their limbs doctors. Lauren waited just a treat when she overhears how a woman says: "It is urgent, I have a 24-year-old girl who needs a right lower leg amputation." Lauren knew she was meant. "Oh God I lose my leg," it flashed through her head.
Although Lauren wasser comes escaped with his life. But the woman who previously stood as a model for the camera sits today in a wheelchair and can only go by using a prosthesis.
She never wants to use a tampon - the manufacturer Kimberly-Clark sued now. Water is confident that wrong material and lack of education are to blame for everything. Your attorney Hunter Shkolnik not surprised that it came so far. The problem had been known for 30 years, have not changed, he is quoted by "Vice". Everything has changed, is a compulsory reference to TSS. This can also be found on the German tampon packaging. For Shkolnik but no more than a free ride for the company to its strategy to drive as far.
That tampons made of pure cotton were safer, it also Philip M. Tierno, a microbiologist and pathologist at the New York University School of Medicine, believes. Most manufacturers, including Germany, are using a mix of viscose and cotton, viscose or pure. Both cases would provide optimum conditions for the formation of toxins - if at all a toxic strain of Staphylococcus aureus vorkomme in the vaginal flora of women. Have a wife no antibodies to the toxic bacteria, it can cause TSS, so Tierno to "vice". Therefore, that synthetic materials is a problem, whereas tampons made from 100 percent cotton significantly lower risk posed - if any one.
Fearing a toxic shock to refrain from tampons to is not advised. In principle, the use of tampons is very safe, says gynecologist Klaus Doubek from the professional association of gynecologists in the net. If the recommended hygiene rules are observed, which can be found on each leaflet the likelihood of becoming ill by these products at a very low toxic shock syndrome.