In a desperate bid to save her husband's life, a determined wife turned to nature's smallest warriors – bacteriophages, or phages – bypassing the traditional route of antibiotics. After Tom Patterson lay critically ill, grappling with an overabundance of bacteria in his body, his wife, Stephanie Strathdee, made a heartfelt plea for help.
"I said, 'Sweetheart, we don't have much time. I need to know if you want to live. I don't even know if you can hear me, but if you can hear me and you want to live, please squeeze my hand,'" Strathdee recalled, fighting back tears as she remembered the moment. "Suddenly he squeezes. I say, 'Oh, wonderful!' And then I think, 'Oh, no! What am I going to do?'"
Motivated by her husband's desire to live, Strathdee embarked on an epic quest to find these elusive viral warriors. She reached out to researchers across the nation, pleading for help to combat the antibiotic-resistant superbugs that baffled doctors.
One of those researchers, Ryland Young from Texas A&M University, became a vital ally in their battle for survival. "I don't know if I've ever met someone as persuasive as Stephanie," Young said. "We just threw everything out and worked around the clock in search of new phages. The people were working around the clock, digging through a hundred different environmental samples, looking for the perfect ones."
Obtaining permission from the FDA to administer the phage treatment proved to be an obstacle, but with persistence and collaboration, Scully managed to gain approval. The U.S. Naval Medical Research Center provided the necessary phages for fibers, and the doctors in San Diego prepared to inject the virus particles into Tom's bloodstream.
The lab in Texas faced the daunting task of separating the virulent phages from the toxic bacterial remnants. "It's like looking for a needle in a haystack," Young explained. "They give a virus particle into a culture, go home and have lunch, and if they're lucky, they see something that looks like a big blob of liquid full of dead bacteria particles. Those viruses out there – we don't want those. We just want the particles."
Even with the successful purification of the phages, legal concerns arose. Attorneys raised potential lawsuits, but against all odds, Strathdee and her team overcame these obstacles, ensuring the safe and effective delivery of phages to Tom.
Armed with the purified phage cocktail, Tom's doctors in San Diego injected the viruses into his bloodstream. The first batch of treatment led to the eradication of an abscess, a moment of relief for the couple. The following claims proved to be miraculous as the Marine phage cocktail brought Tom out of his coma three days later.
"It was just magical," Strathdee said, overcome with joy. "He's just a miracle."
Today, eight years later, Tom continues to live a fulfilling life, enjoying retirement and tending to his garden. While the ordeal has left its mark – diabetes, heart issues, and gastrointestinal problems have surfaced – the couple remains grateful for the second chance they've been given.
"He's not surfing anymore, because he can't feel the bottom of his feet," Strathdee said. "But we're still fighting, and we're going to Chile in January. We're going with a friend who's a doctor specializing in infectious diseases, just in case something happens. In a sense, I'm like a helicopter nurse, but we've already been to Costa Rica and Africa."
The Patterson-Strathdee partnership has inspired interest and research worldwide, pushing the boundaries of phage therapy. Their journey to combat antibiotic-resistant superbugs has sparked a renewed interest in the use of phages as a potential treatment, challenging the traditional antibiotic paradigm.
In 2019, the couple released a book, "The Perfect Predator: A Scientist Saves Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug," sharing their experiences and shedding light on the potential of phages in the fight against antibiotic resistance. "WE DENIED DEATH BY WAGING WAR ON THE MALEVOLENT BACTERIA'S NATURAL ENEMIES," Tom and Stephanie proclaimed in the book.
Enrichment Data: Bacteriophages, also known as phages, offer a unique and promising biologically innovative approach to treating infections that are no longer responsive to traditional antibiotics.
- High Specificity: Phages are highly specific to their bacterial hosts, which reduces the risk of developing resistance and eliminates harmful side effects.
- Different Mode of Action: Phages utilize a distinct mechanism to combat bacteria, decreasing the likelihood of bacteria developing resistance.
- Personalized Treatment: Phage therapy can be tailored to individual bacterial infections, enhancing treatment efficacy by targeting specific strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
- Combination Therapy: Phages can be used in combination with antibiotics, resulting in enhanced treatment efficacy for those grappling with antibiotic-resistant infections.
- Environmental Applications: Phages can be employed to control bacterial diseases in agriculture, aquaculture, and wastewater treatment, thus reducing antibiotic consumption and decreasing antibiotic resistance.
- Research and Development: Ongoing research is focusing on the full potential and mechanisms of phages for treating various antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This includes developing standardized phage therapy protocols and exploring their effectiveness from a One Health perspective.
Phages hold great potential to combat antibiotic resistance, offering a different approach to traditional antibiotics. The Patterson-Strathdee partnership serves as an inspiration for researchers worldwide.
