OK... we just heard what is going on... though I admit to being confused as I would have thought the antibiotics should have worked.
It seems he had a hell of a staph infection. His entire arm from his shoulder down was very swollen. They had to cut him from his palm up to his shoulder... and surgically remove this infection. From what I understand they now have him in ICU and scheduled for another operation tomorrow to be sure they got it all.
can a staph infection get so bad that it has to be surgically cleaned out like this?
Yes Pete. Actually it could have been much worse, ever hear of the flesh eating bacteria?
It sounds as though your brother has Compartment Syndrome and required a procedure called a Fasciotomy.
What happens is the staph infection was in his arm. The body tries to fight it by sending white blood cells etc. to the area. Between the bodies immune response and the growing infection, the area becomes very swollen.
The problem is that this huge amount of pressure starts to cause damage to the surrounding tissue. If this pressure is not relieved the tissue dies. This could be so bad that it would result in the loss of that limb.
Because the pressure was so extensive, and other treatments such as antibiotics are too time consuming, your brother needed to have a Fasciotomy. I believe this is the name of the surgery he had. The doctor makes a long cut to relieve the pressure within your brother's arm and help return the circulation to that area.
Edit: It is not unusual for such an incision - the pressure must be relieved.
