incident at Rimstone River Cave

Date
3rd Aug 1985
Publication
ACA 1984-1985 p. 407
Cave
Rimstone River Cave
State
Missouri
County
Perry
Country
United States of America
Category
Cave
Incident type
Illness
Group type
Unknown
Group size
Unknown
Aid type
Unknown
Source
Unknown
Incident flags
 

Injured cavers

No injured cavers recorded.

Incident report

A group spent 16 hours in Rimstone River Cave, Perry County, Missouri on August 3. During the trip they discovered they had been in water just downstream of a decaying dead deer. For one caver, at least, this included a duckunder requiring getting one ear in the contaminated water. After arriving home, this caver found he had a scrape on the shin. The next morning it was badly infected. He also had an ear infection and "dermatomycosis," and was on antibiotics for five weeks. A companion on that trip had a similar infection of his left arm from the two small cuts on his left hand and was on antibiotics for four weeks. Shin infections are especially nasty since the bone is near the surface and circulation is poor.

Summary

Two cavers contracted infections from contaminated water exposure, one on a shin scrape and another on hand cuts, after caving near decaying animal remains.

References

  1. Jack White Egyptian Echo [Little Egypt Student Grotto] Fall 1985
This record was last updated on 27th Apr 2024 at 23:11 UTC. The data was processed and input using AI.