I read the article in the BMJ with interest and thought your readers
would be interested in my son's experiences.
Tom is 18 years old and had a piercing in his chin. He became ill
with a fever, nausea, headache etc and was teken to hospital three days
later with suspected meningitis. He was treated with IV antibiotics for
two weeks after which he was found to have a heart mumur. Tests revealed
a damaged heart valve, leaky and with an abscess. He had this replaced
with a tissue valve (thanks so much to Kings Cardiac team, who saved his
life). He chose this type of valve to avoid a life time on Warfarin, but
of course in years to come this will need replacing with a metal valve so
he will then have to be on the medicaiton.
All this could have been avoided with proper education about the
dangers of piercings. My family are happy to talk to the medical
profession about our experiences if this would help.
Rapid Response:
piercings
I read the article in the BMJ with interest and thought your readers would be interested in my son's experiences.
Tom is 18 years old and had a piercing in his chin. He became ill with a fever, nausea, headache etc and was teken to hospital three days later with suspected meningitis. He was treated with IV antibiotics for two weeks after which he was found to have a heart mumur. Tests revealed a damaged heart valve, leaky and with an abscess. He had this replaced with a tissue valve (thanks so much to Kings Cardiac team, who saved his life). He chose this type of valve to avoid a life time on Warfarin, but of course in years to come this will need replacing with a metal valve so he will then have to be on the medicaiton.
All this could have been avoided with proper education about the dangers of piercings. My family are happy to talk to the medical profession about our experiences if this would help.
Competing interests: None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests