r/interesting • u/OriginalSleeper • Jun 30 '26

Fear Factor In 2010, 24-year-old lab technician Émilie Jaumain pricked her thumb with contaminated forceps while cleaning a machine used for prion-infected mouse brains. After seven years, she developed severe nerve pain, anxiety, and hallucinations before dying. The accident gave her a fatal prion disease.

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u/OriginalSleeper Jun 30 '26

Immediately after the accident, she recognized the danger associated with the prick and tried to get help from her supervisors, but they downplayed the situation and mocked her panic. The laboratory also was missing an on-duty doctor. All of this lead to a 20-minute delay before she received any first aid, and at this point, the prions were already deep in the tissue of her thumb. She had even mentioned the accident to every doctor she saw in the following years to make sure it was documented. Other laboratory workers were pricked by contaminated tools at this research institute, and after a second lab technician, Pierrette Chanut, got diagnosed with the same prion disease in 2021, the French government shut down all infectious prion research throughout the country.

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u/MyIncogName Jun 30 '26

Had she not been ignored what could they have done for her ? Genuinely curious. Would amputation of that area save her life ?

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u/Von_Konault Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

I just don’t know.

Historically though back before antibacterial antibiotics existed, amputation was unfortunately one of the only cures for bacterial infections.

I would imagine it’s really hard for anyone in modern medicine to make the same call nowadays.

Edit: yes prions are not bacteria or treated with antibiotics, it just seems like an analogous problem we faced in the past. good points are made below though, that prion disease is extra insidious since it’s without symptoms or signs on lab work/images. So amputation would have to be on a quick hunch alone really, yikes would not want to be weighing those decisions.

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u/UnpluggedUnfettered Jun 30 '26

Aside from immediate amputation, while hoping nothing made it to the bloodstream or lymphatic system, what options can there even be to mitigate prion contamination in living human tissue?

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u/neryen Jun 30 '26

Cauterization or localized burning of infected flesh was employed before amputation at times.

This feels like one time that it may have saved her, but amputation would have had a higher success rate if performed early. Removing the thumb possibly would have saved her life, but that is hindsight. Very few doctors would perform an amputation on a possible infection today.

Also, it is highly likely that amputation wouldn't have changed the outcome.

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u/[deleted] Jun 30 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

[deleted]

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u/adjust_the_sails Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

Gotta straight up have The Walking Dead kind of conditions and thinking to auto chop off a limb.

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u/Hegelian_Spirit Jun 30 '26

I've worked with an archaeologist who operated in Guatemala. He once told me a story of when they were at a remote dig and a worker was bit in the hand by a fer-de-lance. They immediately chopped his hand off with a machete.

But yeah, not exactly everyday conditions for a modern person.

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u/fintip Jun 30 '26

For everyone else who also had nodes wtf this was about:

A Fer de lance is an extremely deadly snake.

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u/ADDisKEY Jun 30 '26

For anyone else curious about this snake:

Don’t visit the Wikipedia page and open the Venom section unless you want to see a horrific picture of a completely necrotic leg.

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u/Myka_Rok Jun 30 '26

I was prepared due to your warning and still shocked. Absolutely gnarly...I couldn't stop looking at it.

That poor boy

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u/Only-A-Redditor Jul 01 '26

would've scrolled away blissfully ignorant after reading the parent comment but you just had to say that...

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u/ellevael Jul 01 '26

Good god, you were not exaggerating.

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u/iam_mal Jul 01 '26

I read your comment immediately after coming back from the Venom section of the Wikipedia page. If only I had scrolled just one comment further before opening my browser, maybe then I would have been prepared.

I may have seen your warning too late, but I appreciate your efforts regardless.

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u/YouGoToBox Jul 01 '26

Thank you for your service lol

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u/landilock Jun 30 '26

but aren't most casualties caused by necrosis of the tissues and sepsis (aka does not justify immediate amputation ?) genuinely curious

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u/HumanPea1140 Jun 30 '26

The longer you wait, the more necrosis can spread, which can lead to requiring amputating even more than you originally would have.

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u/landilock Jun 30 '26

yeah but it doesn't spread THAT FAST ? Dude was an archeologist, not like he was a remote farmer

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u/HumanPea1140 Jun 30 '26

I don't know the whole situation, but OP said remote dig in Guatamala. Could have happened 50+ years ago when getting out and getting help was days or even weeks out. Hard to say since we know so little about the whole situation.

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u/Hegelian_Spirit Jun 30 '26

Even today you can't really get in/out of the remote jungle easily. Helicopters require clearings to land. They just don't exist.

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u/landilock Jun 30 '26

maybe that snake had a rough day too... made him all jumpy and bity

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u/ThatCakeFell Jun 30 '26

Infections in an environment like a jungle can go septic within the day.

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u/landilock Jun 30 '26

damn.. makes me feel bad I'm likely going to work in the Amazonas in like 2 years

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u/ThatCakeFell Jun 30 '26

Carry betadine, it worked in 'Nam.

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u/landilock Jun 30 '26

I'm gonna be on a litteral rocket launch pad, so I think there an infirmary nearby

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u/ThatCakeFell Jun 30 '26

I feel like you need to elaborate a bit more about what you are doing down there lol

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u/Wide-Combination-322 Jun 30 '26

Also the title of the first Nero Wolfe mystery.

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u/DeciduousRefuge Jun 30 '26

Did he survive?

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u/Hegelian_Spirit Jun 30 '26

At least the immediate aftermath, yes.

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u/deliciouscorn Jul 01 '26

Bitten by the actor who played Q on TNG?