A week later, the 21-year-old Florence man was dead, the victim of a rare and largely forgotten infection most people have never heard of and many doctors have never seen.
His mother now is on a mission to educate doctors on the dangers of Lemierre syndrome and to save another family from suffering a loss like hers.
"We're trying to get the awareness out, and the protection for the next person that comes into the emergency room with a sore throat," Beth Rudd said.
Andy Rudd told his parents he had a sore throat on Oct. 3, a Saturday. He saw a doctor the following Monday, who told him it was probably a strep infection. He prescribed Zithromax, an antibiotic.
By Oct. 7, he was worse. He went to the emergency room, where he tested negative for both a strep infection and mononucleosis. Doctors told him he had a virus "and he needed to let it run its course," his mother said.
He went home to rest and try to get better.
On Oct. 10, he told his parents he was going to take a shower. They heard him go upstairs, then heard the water come on.
"We kept hearing the water running and running and running," Beth Rudd said.
Her husband, Jim, went up to check on him, and found their son had collapsed in the bathroom. The family, then paramedics, tried to revive him with CPR, but it was no use.
Every times I read one of these stories my heart breaks. The reporter interviewed me extensively and quotes me accurately. I will continue writing about this disease until we learn how to prevent it.
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D.B. Magnificent job, I regularly read your blog. Diagnosed my first case (after 23 years of ER practice) in a 62 year old male 2 days ago, based on recollection of a post on the topic you made last year. He presented with 24 hours rigors and a deep space infection in his left neck, following a transient sore throat 4 days prior. Ultrasound confirmed thrombophlebitis in his internal jugular vein, we're still waiting for cultures. Kudos, your highlighting of this topic had a direct impact on someone's life in rural Newfoundland.