Florida

Bat Bite Victim Dies From Rabies in Florida

October 31, 2017 By James Hendrickson Leave a Comment

A Florida resident has died of rabies after being bitten by a bat, according to health officials.

The patient died due to non-treatment. They did not report the bite or seek treatment after being bitten. The Florida Department of Health has reported the victim was likely bitten in the Highlands County area, where they lived, but do not know when the bite occurred.

Mara Gambineri expressed the importance of minding some simple health rules. “It is important to avoid direct contact with wildlife,” she stated. “If you believe you may have been exposed to rabies, including any physical contact with a bat, contact your health care provider and your county health department right away.”

As with many health-related conditions, seeking treatment for rabies can be crucial. As in this case, if you do not seek immediate attention you will die from rabies. Although Florida (and many other states) require pets like cats, dogs, and ferrets to be vaccinated against rabies, most of the wildlife carries the virus.

In Florida, rabies is most commonly found in raccoons and bats. If your domesticated animal is not up-to-date on their vaccination, they can contract the virus as well. As with people, animals will also die from the virus.

Signs of Rabies

Whether you are in the Highlands County area or not, you should be aware of the signs of rabies in an animal and what it may start to feel like if you’ve contracted the virus.

Rabies in Animals

Rabies will likely first be detected in an animal as an upset stomach. Usually, they will start vomiting. The animal will then become low energy but very aggressive. If you notice these signs in your pet at home, call your vet right away.

Rabies in Humans

Humans don’t contract rabies very often. This is because, for the most part, animals are vaccinated. About 40,000 people receive a preventative rabies vaccine each year after coming into contact with an animal with the virus. About 90% of all cases are found in wildlife. For humans, rabies will feel a lot like the flu and can include the following symptoms:

Muscle aches
Dizziness
Fatigue
Fever
Loss of appetite
Fear or hallucinations
Nausea/vomiting
Muscle spasms
Complete paralysis of some muscles
Pins and needles
Sensitivity to light
Aggression/irritability

Health officials would like to remind everyone that if you are bitten by an animal, you need to seek immediate treatment. Even if the animal seems to be okay it could be carrying a disease that can kill you.

If you think you have been exposed to rabies (or think an animal has), please contact your local health department for instructions on how to handle the situation and stay healthy.

Stay safe from food allergies by supporting the Teal Pumpkin Project.

Photo: Aidan Jones

Venice Beach Lightning Death is Second US Lightning Beach Death this Week

July 28, 2014 By Jeffrey Strain 1 Comment

13 injured and 1 killed in lightning strike on Venice Beach

For the second time this week, a person has died as the result of a lightning strike while at the beach. According to the National Weather Service, a 41-year-old man walking along Fort Meyers Beach in Florida was struck and killed by lightning on Tuesday last week. Five days later, Nick Fagnano, a 21-year-old was killed by a lightning strike at Venice Beach in California.

The Venice Beach lightning strike injured at least 12 others, along with another person who was hit by lightning from the same storm on Catalina Island. The lightning appears to have hit the ocean just off of Venice Beach with the electrical current traveling through the water to hit swimmers and surfers in the area.

Of the 13 hit by the lightning, eight were transported to local hospitals while 5 others were assessed at the scene, but did not require hospitalization. Of the eight taken to the hospital, one remains in critical condition.

It was only two weeks ago that two people were killed by lightning at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado on two different days, with 11 others injured. There have been a total of 16 people killed by lightning so far this year according to the NOAA, the latest two at beaches. These are the first two deaths from lightning at beaches this year.

Florida has had the most lightning deaths this year with six, followed by Colorado with 2. Arkansas, California, Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas and Wisconsin have all recorded a single lightning death in 2014. Of the 16 deaths, 13 have been male while three have been female.

Lightning is not something that most of us consider as an everyday danger, and because of that many don’t know what to do to protect themselves when thunderstorms arrive. Knowing what to do when thunderstorms are in the area can save your life. Some lightning safety tips are somewhat counter intuitive, but they are important to know if you should happen to find yourself in a storm. The number one rule to remember is if you can hear thunder, then you are in danger of being hit by lightning and should immediately seek shelter.

Simple Precautions to Avoid Chikungunya Fever During Mosquito Season

June 8, 2014 By Jeffrey Strain Leave a Comment

The chikungunya virus from mosquito bites in the US

It’s that time of year when insects come out, and you need to be careful of the diseases they may carry. You may mot have heard of the chikungunya mosquito borne disease before, but chances are that you will be hearing more about it in the future. No actual cases have been recorded of people getting it while in the US (although there have been reported cases in the American territory of Puerto Rico), but with more and more travelers returning from abroad with the disease, it’s simply a matter of time. That’s because once a person is infected, if a non-infected mosquito bites them, they can attain the virus and pass it onto another person with their next bite. As of June 2, there have been a total of 28 confirmed cases of the chikungunya disease in people who are living in the US, with most of those residing in Florida. Florida is also on alert for another mosquito borne disease, Dengue fever.

According to the Center for Disease Control, the most common symptoms of chikungunya fever are joint pain and fever. In addition, those infected can also suffer from headaches, joint swelling, various muscle pain, and rashes. While most people feel better within a week of the symptoms developing (usually 3 to 7 days after being bitten), the joint pain can last for months in some cases. The good news is that this disease rarely results in death, but that doesn’t mean that the symptoms aren’t severe, and can be debilitating for a time. Those who are infected from the mother at birth, those over 65 and people with certain medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure are most likely to suffer severe cases of the disease if infected.

Currently there is no vaccine for chikungunya, so the key to avoiding it is to not get bitten by mosquitoes in the first place. Here are a few steps that can help you protect yourself.

Avoid Mosquito Habitats

The best way to avoid mosquitoes is to stay away from their natural habitats of standing water. While this isn’t always possible, avoiding places likely to have stagnant water where they breed such as lakes, marshes, stagnant creeks, and swamps can reduce your chances of getting bitten.

Clear Your Home

Since most people spend the majority of their time at home and around the house, make sure there are no places around your home where mosquitoes can breed, such as old tires with water in them, buckets or other containers with still water that collects after a rain, or any other stagnant bodies of water where they like to breed. Removing these can greatly reduce the number of the insects around your house.

Cover Up

When you do go out, cover up. The less skin that’s showing, the less likely you are to get bitten. Wear loose fitting long-sleeved shirts and long pants. Since the weather is likely to be hot and humid, loose fitting clothes will help you stay cooler, plus it’s possible for mosquitoes to bite through tight, thin clothing. The CDC says that the mosquitoes which carry chikungunya fever are most active during the day.

Use Repellents

There are a wide variety of insect repellents which can be applied directly to your skin to help keep mosquitoes away. These usually contain DEET or picaridin as the active ingredient, which are both effective in repelling mosquitoes according to the CDC. There are also a wide variety of natural mosquito repellents, but these may not be as effective as their chemical counterparts.

As with most things, there will be a small cost to be proactive and protect yourself from getting bitten by a mosquito that may carry the disease, but that will be far less than the cost you’ll incur if you actually get the disease. A few good cans of quality mosquito repellent are a lot less expensive than a trip to the doctor’s office, reduced productivity and missed work.

(Photo courtesy of LOLO)

Things I Wish I Had Kept

March 12, 2010 By David G. Mitchell 13 Comments

I live in Florida. Until recently, I would have said that I live in “sunny” Florida to distinguish my state from the cold places to the north. This year, however, cold weather came south for the winter along with all of the snowbirds who flock to Florida just after Christmas. Indeed, from about December 26, 2009 until early the first week in march when I wrote this, it was miserably cold in much of Florida, with temperatures regularly dropping into the 30’s on the Fahrenheit scale at night and often lingering in the low 50’s at the peak of the day’s heat.

I moved to Florida for a lot of reasons but the exhilaration of cold New England winters was not among them. No, I moved here in part to avoid the cold and I was so confident that I would not be cold during the winters that I donated all of my winter coats to charity. I kept a few sweaters, my winter cap festooned with embroidered whales and an over sized pom-pom, my balaclava and a few other things, but not my coats. I figured, why keep a bunch of overcoats that I would never be likely to use again and which were too bulky for travel and I was happy to donate them to charities that could put them to better use.

That was ten years ago. Oh, how I wish I had kept those coats, or at least one of those coats in my closet for the past ten years. Maybe then I would not have frozen each night when I took my dog out for his evening walk, and later, when seemingly every night at 1am he told me that he needed to go out again. Maybe then, I would not have had to wear sometimes three sweaters over my tee-shirt and shirt. Maybe then, I would not have gone numb from the waist down every night when I stepped out of my house.

Of course, I am pleased that for the past decade, there are four or five needier people who might have gotten use out of my overcoats. Nevertheless, I know now that I was foolish to have assumed that I would never need cold weather gear again. I should have kept at least one of those coats. Even if I never used it again, I would always have had it just in case I needed it. In reality, it is rare to be able to predict when we will never be in need of something again, just as it is difficult to predict sometimes whether we will need something we contemplate purchasing. That uncertainty makes it worth the effort and the storage space to try to keep at least one of everything even if we are getting rid of the rest.

I’ve gotten rid of a lot of things over the years and I regret a lot of those dispositions. I would love to have been able to give all of my concert tee-shirts and sweatshirts to my own children, but I turned those into rags for washing my car about 15 years ago. I sold my baseball cards to a guy who never paid me for a lot of them. I got rid of my 78 and 45 and 33 1/3 RPM records and a lot of CDS. I donated a lot of my books. I gave away my coats.

It’s true that sometimes we can replace the things that we have cast aside, but that is always frustrating for a person who tries to be cost conscious. I never bought a coat this winter because I always convinced myself that the cold weather could not last. Part of my reluctance, however, I know was because I hated the thought of buying a new coat when I knew that I could have had my choice of several if I had just been patient and left my old coats in my closet.
I did take heart today when I told my wife about this column. She was quick to offer comfort and reminded me that she thought that all of my coats had been really, really ugly and that her only regret was that I also did not donate my whale cap with the giant pom-pom…

What have you given up that you wish you had retained? Are you sometimes too quick to donate or to sell or to throw away?

Savings Lessons At No Cost

December 30, 2009 By David G. Mitchell 5 Comments

Last week, Florida had its first real cold spell of the season. When I went outside to let our dog stretch his legs after a night indoors, I could see my breath and I very much regretted leaving the house without at least two more layers of clothing. While we did not get the snow that the North got, it was still a lot colder than we are used to here in the Sunshine State.

And when it gets cold in the South, it can mean only one thing for our two SUVs. At least one of our batteries will die. As if programmed for it, the battery in my wife’s Envoy died the night that our cold spell hit. We called AAA, an annual experience for us when it gets cold, and had our battery replaced with a AAA battery. We elected not to have the SUV towed to our dealership so that the dealer could install the battery because the AAA battery was no more expensive, came with a six year warranty (as opposed to a three year partial warranty at the dealer) and was an immediate solution that did require tow trucks or later trips to the dealership to pick up the vehicle.

I was also impressed with the AAA representative’s knowledge of batteries. He explained to me that most batteries are made for general use anywhere in the USA. AAA batteries, however, are made with climate in mind. Accordingly, the battery that he sold me was specifically intended for use in the Southern part of the USA and could withstand the shock of hot days followed by cold winter night. Truthfully, I have no idea whether or not he was telling me the truth, but he sounded good and I trusted him.

With the New Year approaching, we all have a lot that we can learn in order to help us to make more money, save more money, and spend more wisely. Just as I learned something from my conversation with the AAA representative, there are a lot of ways that we can get lessons without having to pay any money to do so. You might want to consider some of the following.

Become a More Effective in Repairing Your Home: Whether or not you consider yourself handy, set a personal goal of becoming more effective in taking care of your home. Home improvement stores want your business and they know that the more you learn to do for yourself, the more you will potentially buy from them. Stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot often offer regular classes in DIY home repair and home improvement. Check out your local store and find out what you can learn to do for yourself.

Become a Craft God or Goddess: There are a lot of things that you can enjoy making for yourself if you take the time to learn. Whether you want to learn to knit, or to make your own holiday cards or to do some other craft-based project, stores like Michael’s will often offer classes for both adults and children. Not only can such classes help you to create crafts on your own, you may find that you have a lot of fun attending them as well.

What Does Your Library Have to Offer? Many libraries offer classes in the use of computer software applications, finance and other business skills. Check out your library today and take a step forward in January!

Churches are more than Places of Worship: Many churches also offer classes in finance and other skills. Programs may or may not be faith-based but explore the churches in your area and you may find that programs are open to be members and non-members alike.

Talk to Your Neighbors: If you notice that your neighbors have skills that you might like to learn, consider whether you have any skills that you can offer to your neighbors. You will bring your community closer together if you collaborate to share knowledge!

What do you want to learn this coming year? How do you want to improve? Where will you go to learn? Who will help?

Water, Water Everywhere! Why You Need Flood Insurance

August 25, 2008 By David G. Mitchell 5 Comments

Mother Nature can give us a lot of free entertainment. There are few things more relaxing than hiking through the woods on a Saturday morning or sitting outside on a Sunday afternoon and watching the sunset. Mother Nature can also wreak havoc on your home and possessions when she decides to dump too much rain or snow or hail on you! Unfortunately, I have found that the damage that Mother Nature can do is often a lot less painful than the hurdles that insurance companies can put us through after Mother Nature has done her worst.

We moved to Florida in 2000. Our house was relatively new at the time, and we thought, in good condition. It had passed inspection easily, and after we moved in, our neighbors cooed about how much effort had gone into making our home “just perfect.” It certainly seemed perfect to us at the time.

However, a few months after we moved in, the rainy season began. First we noticed that we had tremendous flooding on three sides of our house. Every time it rained, we quickly had three inches of standing water in the front of our house and six inches of standing water on either side. Our garden suffered and so did our lawn. More importantly, the flooding made our front door and yard unusable for a substantial part of the Florida rainy season. Fortunately, we were able to correct those problems by installing gutters and drains (to the road) at a cost of a few thousand dollars. Money that we begrudgingly, but necessarily, had to spend. Unfortunately, we only decided to improve the drainage at the front of the house.

We assumed that our water problems were over, but that was not the case. A couple of months after the rainy season had ended, we were rearranging furniture in one of our rooms and discovered, much to our dismay, that an entire wall (concealed behind book cases) had been leaking, apparently for some time. The carpet in the room, baseboard along the wall, and some of the furniture, were all ruined. Also, the wall needed to be repainted. Of course, the leak was at the side of the house where we had elected not to improve our drainage. We knew that if we ever bought a house in Florida again, we would walk the property after a major rain storm to check the drainage.

We called out our insurance adjuster and he promptly appeared. He told us that the exterior walls in the house had not been properly sealed and that because the damage had been caused by flooding, our homeowner’s policy did not protect us from that kind of damage. Since it seemed that the leakage had occurred by groundwater seeping into the walls at the base of the house, we did not challenge the adjuster beyond a few “what if” scenarios. Then we paid another few thousand dollars to repair the damage. We also improved the drainage on both sides of the house and to the rear, at a cost of a few thousand dollars more.

At about the same time that we discovered the leak in our wall, we had yet another major downpour. For reasons that I do not understand, the downpour did not cause me any problems but my next door neighbor felt the full force of what can go wrong in a storm. After several hours of heavy rain, he and his family heard a strange gurgling sound. When they investigated, they found that sewage from the continuing rain had backed up into his home via all of his sinks, bathtubs, and toilets. The clean up was unpleasant, to say the least. He also had to replace flooring in many areas of his home due to damage. As we had found with the damage to our home from ground water, his homeowner’s policy did not cover the damage from the sewage back up.

The convergence of these events lead me to two conclusions. First and foremost, I was clearly not managing our insurance policies in a prudent fashion, so I gladly gave insurance management over to my wife. Second, we needed to review our insurance policies to determine how we could protect ourselves from water damage and related problems. Here is what we learned:

Homeowner’s insurance generally does not cover flood damage

In the months after Hurricane Katrina hit, we all read many stories about people who did not carry flood insurance on their properties. Sadly, many of Katrina’s victims did not live to regret the mistake. Although many residential insurance policies will cover damage from windswept rain, you will probably need a supplemental policy from the National Flood Insurance Program if you want to ensure protection from flood waters. If you live in a flood plain, you must have flood insurance to secure financing on your home (whether to purchase it or to refinance it). For others flood insurance is not required by law.

Flood insurance is not expensive. We pay about $350 per year (a small fraction of what we pay for our homeowner’s policy) but it did give a great deal of security when we experienced Tropical Storm Fay this past week. For more information, you should explore the Federal Emergency Management Agency website (www.fema.gov) and the Federal Citizen Information Center website (http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/housing/natl-flood/insurance.htm).

Don’t wait to explore your needs for a policy

Federal flood policies usually have a 30 day waiting period before they take effect. If you wait until you think you actually need a flood insurance policy, it will probably be too late.

Learn about sewage supplements

When my neighbor’s home was fouled by sewage, his losses could have been mitigated if he had previously purchased a sewage supplement to his homeowner’s policy. Flood insurance policies do not cover damage from sewage.

Don’t assume that natural disasters will not happen to you

Over the years, my homes (whether those I lived in as a child and those I owned as an adult) have been damaged by snow, high winds, hail, rains, flooding, and fires. I have experienced hurricanes, blizzards, tornados, and hail storms. Sometimes damage was significant. Sometimes it was minor, but could have been worse.

The point is that none of us can know when a disaster will strike. When it does strike, you will look first to save your loved ones and you will be grateful if no one is hurt. In the aftermath, however, you will find much needed additional relief if you know that you understand your homeowner’s insurance (and your car insurance, for that matter) so that you will not have to worry about paying thousands to repair or recover your home.

Image courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey