After Antibiotics Failed To Kill Life-Threatening Bacteria, This Wife Found A Cure That Saved Husband’s Life
In an unexpected turn of events, an American by the name of Tom Patterson found himself lying in a U.S. hospital bed, dying from a major bacterial infection he’d apparently contracted while he was traveling in Egypt. And worse yet, the doctors were giving him a prognosis of just days to live.
Thankfully, Patterson’s wife, Steffanie Strathdee, who happened to be an actual infectious disease epidemiologist, refused to give in to the disease, and did everything possible to cure her husband, even if the cure was like finding a needle in the middle of a haystack.
During the months that Patterson lay in the UC San Diego hospital in 2016, Strathdee – who was an associate dean of global health science – spent months by her husband’s bedside, agonizing about how she was going to keep her husband alive.
She told CNN during a health and wellness event that was co-sponsored by the news channel, “I had this conversation that nobody ever wants to have with their loved one.”
“I said, ‘Honey, we’re running out of time. I need to know if you want to live. I don’t even know if you can hear me but if you can hear me and you want to live, please squeeze my hand.’ I waited and waited, and all of a sudden, he squeezed really hard,” she added.
It was after that moment that Strathdee made it her life goal to find a cure for him, even if it entailed ‘turning to conventional disease intervention on its head.’
She sorted through tons of medical research, finally finding something that gave her some hope, which was phage treatment. Phages are ‘naturally occurring viruses that literally eat bacteria.’
She decided to reach out to the Tbilisi who happens to be a Georgia researcher whose work she’d found online. She discovered that while the protocol wasn’t mainstream, the long-term studies that were done in the U.S. and abroad had shown that the treatment’s outcome was promising in some cases.
One of the main problems was that there were over 10 million-trillion-trillion unique phages that exist on the planet, so figuring out which one would specifically feed on the Acinetobacter baumannii virus that happened to be killing Tom was like trying to find one particular tiny star in the whole galaxy.
This particular superbug, which was given the nickname Iraqibacter since it was contracted by many wounded combat troops in Iraq, was also ranked number one on the World Health Organization (WHO) list of dangerous pathogens. Regardless, Strathdee decided to begin networking in order to get Tom the treatment he needed if he had any hopes of survival.
Her first move was to appeal to the scientists to track down and purify samples of phages that were known to feed on the specific type of bacteria strain which was afflicting Tom. Thankfully, Ryland Young, a Texas A&M University biochemist that has been tracking such phages for over four-and-a-half decades was more than willing to help her. Amazingly, other U.S. Navy researchers also signed up to help them on their daunting task.
After which, Strathdee also had to plea with the FDA to fast-track a “compassionate use” order to allow the doctors to implement the experimental treatment on her husband, which they granted quickly. After just three weeks, Tom was injected with his very first intravenous dose of purified “phage cocktail” created by the team at Texas A&M. After observing no adverse effects, Tom then got his second IV dose two days later, courtesy of the U.S. Navy.
Miraculously, the results were said to be like something straight out of an episode of the favored TV series House. And soon after his second phage IV push, Tom – who had already been in a comatose state – began to raise his head and even kiss his daughter’s hand.
The Promising Future of Phage Treatment
Since the successful treatment, Tom Patterson is considered to be the very first U.S. patient that had a systemic superbug infection that was successfully treated via intravenous phage therapy.
It’s been six years since Patterson’s recovery, and in conjunction with Dr. Robert “Chip” Schooley, the US San Diego infectious disease specialist, Strathdee, who spearheaded her husband’s treatment and care, has since opened up the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics (IPATH), a facility that not only treats but counsels patients that are afflicted by drug-resistant infections, just like her husband.
Alongside Schooley, Strathdee is set to launch a clinical phage trial in the antibiotic-resistant bacteria called Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which happens to be associated with the deadly cystic fibrosis. Moreover, they are also working to establish a worldwide “phage library” ‘with the hopes of streamlining the process of sourcing, purifying, and cataloging a curated collection of infection-specific phages.’
Despite some of the lingering and otherwise debilitating effects Patterson sometimes undergoes due to his battle with a superbug, he has still managed to live a rather happy and productive life of which he and his wife are incredibly thankful for.
Strathdee also told CNN,
“We’re not complaining! I mean every day is a gift, right? People say, ‘Oh, my God, all the planets had to line up for this couple,’ and we know how lucky we are.”
The couple has even written a memoir, which you can find on Amazon.