June Baxter Obituary, Death; – An 83-year-old United Kingdom woman is dead after a dog reportedly licked an open wound on her leg, according to testimony from a coroner first reported by The Telegraph.
June Baxter, who Norfolk Coroner Johanna Thompson described as being “in frail health,” fell while in the bathroom and cut her leg June 29.
Baxter alerted her granddaughter, who came to help and brought her dog along. At some point during that visit, the coroner believes that dog licked the fresh cut on Baxter’s leg.
Thompson pinned Baxter’s passing not on her age or the injury but bacteria found in a dog’s saliva: Pasteurella multocida.
“On the following day she reported feeling unwell. She was taken to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital where she was diagnosed with an infection which was subsequently identified to be arising from a domestic dog lick,” Thompson testified.
According to the National Institute of Health, Pasteurella multocida is the “most common cause of infection following a bite or scratch from domestic pets.”
Exposure can lead to rapidly progressing respiratory and soft tissue infections and, in some cases, death.
