Danish Henrik Kriegbaum Plettner (33) died this autumn, after a long illness as a result of a cat bite.
The family is now telling the story on Danish TV 2 to warn others to take cat bites seriously.
It started in 2018, when Plettner and his family were a foster family for a mother cat with cubs. In connection with Plettner moving the mother cat, he was severely bitten on the finger.
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– The cat had bitten straight into a blood vessel, and when a cat bites and pulls out the tooth, the hole closes and the bacteria spreads, says Anni Thyme, who is Plettner’s mother.
The family called the emergency room, but were told to come the next day. By then, the bacteria had already had time to spread.
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After a short time, Plettner ended up in hospital, where he had to undergo 15 operations. Among other things, an index finger was amputated.
– He had very fluctuating health. He had weakened immune systems, pneumonia, gout and diabetes, says Anni Thyme to Danish TV 2.
Senior doctor Lars Skov Dalsgaard at Regionhospitalet Gødstrum tells the media that Plettner was exposed to rare, violent infections which resulted in tissue destruction and which spread quickly.
In October, Plettner died as a result of the complications he suffered from the bite. Today, the family wished they had gone to the doctor straight away, and not waited.
– Go to the doctor, it’s important, don’t take chances – and go immediately, says Desirée Plettner, who is Henrik Kriegbaum Plettner’s ex-wife.
