A staph infection claimed the life of a student in Bedford, Va., outside Roanoke.
Students throughout the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan and the nation have contracted the fatal infection in the last month.
All 21 school in Bedford County were closed for one week while a commercial cleaning company disinfected the buildings.
MRSA is a bacteria strain unresponsive to penicillin and other antibiotics but treatable with other medications. The infection spreads by skin-to-skin contact or through the sharing of personal items, such as a bar of soap, deodorant stick or washcloth. The infection is highly transferable through an open wound. Many infections spread in locker rooms where athletes -- who may have cuts or abrasions -- share sports equipment. Bonds played football last year but not this season.
Bonds first went to Bedford Memorial Hospital Oct. 4 complaining of pain in his side. Doctors there sent him home after ruling out appendicitis. When Bonds’ health did not improve, he was hospitalized at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Doctors there diagnosed the teenager with MRSA, which invaded his bloodstream and spread to his kidneys, liver, lungs and muscles around his heart.
"His lungs didn't recover," the boy’s mother, Veronica Bonds, said.
Four days before his death, he was sedated and put on a ventilator. As doctors were ready to surgically drain the infection from his lungs, they found an inoperable blood clot near his heart.
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