Julie McKenna Lost Her Limbs to a Puppy Lick
In 2007, a woman named Julie McKenna suffered a mild burn on her foot — the kind of injury that ordinarily heals without incident. Her puppy licked the wound. Within a short time, Capnocytophaga canimorsus had entered her bloodstream. What followed was a medical emergency of an extreme kind: septic shock, organ failure, and her limbs turning black from the tissue damage. By the time the crisis had run its course, McKenna had lost her left leg below the knee, part of her right foot, and every one of her fingers and toes. The puppy was not sick. The lick was affectionate. The wound was minor. None of that mattered once the bacterium found its way inside.
Greg Manteufel’s Case Made National News in 2019
More than a decade after the McKenna case, a strikingly similar story emerged. In 2019, a man named Greg Manteufel was reported by Today as having required the amputation of his nose, his hands, and his legs after his dog licked him. Like McKenna, Manteufel was not bitten. The exposure was through ordinary contact — the kind that happens between dogs and their owners dozens of times a day. His case drew wide attention because it illustrated something that many people find difficult to accept: a beloved pet behaving normally can, in rare circumstances, trigger a life-altering medical emergency. The dog was not dangerous. The outcome was devastating.
How Often Do C. Canimorsus Infections Turn Fatal
Capnocytophaga canimorsus infections are rare. That point is worth emphasizing, because the cases that reach the news are extreme outliers. But when infections do occur, the outcomes are disproportionately severe. One study found that 26 percent of people with confirmed C. canimorsus infections died. That is a fatality rate that would be considered alarming in almost any other infectious context. People who are immunocompromised — due to age, illness, medications, or other factors — face the highest risk. But as the McKenna and Manteufel cases demonstrate, otherwise healthy people are not entirely exempt. The rarity of infection is real; so is the severity when it happens.
