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WKRN.COM Home August 1, 2001

Man Fights For Life After Tick Bite

Reporter: Nancy Hauskins

Tennessee is home to many ticks that can make you sick. A Clarksville man found that out the hard way.

Charles Clawson, 53, is in the fight of his life. "He was in liver failure, in renal failure, mentally pretty confused." He is battling back from ehrlichiosis brought on by a tick bite. The doctor himself said that it was really bad.

Clawson's wife pulled three ticks off her husband in mid-June after he returned from a farm. He started feeling sick in early July. By the 10th he was admitted to a Clarksville hospital.

Doctors still were not sure what was wrong. Doctors say the best thing you can do is prevent a tick bite in the first place. Ehrlichiosis is rare. Ticks in Tennessee are not, so it is important to watch for a reaction of flu-like symptoms within three weeks of a tick bite. It is easily treated with antibiotics when it's caught.

Charles is doing much better thanks to quick thinking doctors, his family and community support. Charles spent nearly ten days on a respirator. Now he is breathing on his own. Doctors say he could even be released as soon as Monday.

Now, it is possible that Charles Clawson also has lyme disease, but a positive diagnosis of that takes about eight months.

A diagnosis of Lyme takes about EIGHT MONTHS! YIKES! Come ON Tennessee! You can do better than that!

I hope he fully recovers... at least long enough to get to a LLMD!

Great story!!! Ticks in TN though>?!*)!

quote:

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Originally posted by rosanitida:
Oh no! Eight months! Where are they getting their info?? Someone must be on drugs. Incredulous.

Poor guy. I hope he pulls through okay.

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Eveyone, I also wonder where they got the 8 months to diagnose. In a way, I guess it could be good they say that if it means it is difficult to diagnose. Not good if they are planning on waiting for 8 months to treat him!

There are no ticks in Tennessee....

One from PEST MANAGEMENT CONSULTATION, HOLSTON ARMY AMMUNITION PLANT,
KINGSPORT, TENNESSEE, 5-7 OCTOBER 1990

***NOTICE THE DATE***

This is from that assessment:

7. CONCLUSIONS. Although the tick, Ixodes scapularis thought to be the
principal vector of B. burgdorferi was not found at Holston AAP, A.
americanum was present and has been shown to vector the spirochete causing
LD.

Here's another asssessment of a Tenn location done by the Army:

PEST MANAGEMENT STUDY, VOLUNTEER ARMY AMMUNITION PLANT,
CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE, 23-26 JULY 1990

6. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.

a. Tick drags were conducted at 22 sites at Volunteer AAP both within
the manufacturing/administrative areas and in the habitats surrounding the
storage magazines. A total of 1769 ticks (two species, all life stages)
were collected at 11 of these sites. The Table in Appendix A summarizes
the sites and the number of ticks collected and the percent testing positive
for LD. Only three of the sites yielded ticks which tested positive for B.
burgdorferi. The percent of ticks testing positive at sites 7, 12 and 18
were, 5, 5 and 10, respectively.

Approximately 10.4 percent of all ticks
collected were tested for LD and of these, 3.8 percent were positive.

We even had an idiot tell us there is no Lyme in Florida...really - he's lived here for 15 years.....where would he have gotten bit????

So now son in law is totally disabled and requires 24/7 care and lives in a nursing home..If it wasn't for the WONDERFUL MARVELOUS PEOPLE on this site - we would have never known about a doctor in Missouri

Joan