- William Hill is a big Dennis Rodman fan.
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- "I saw Dennis Rodman's lip was pierced," he
said, "so I wanted to get my lip pierced."
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- That lip ring--and another piercing on his tongue--almost
cost Hill his life, doctors say. They gave a rare but slow-moving strep
infection an avenue into his system, causing him to have a stroke and forcing
him to have emergency heart surgery.
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- His story is among the most serious cases of a mouth
piercing gone awry, one expert said.
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- "We have kind of an extreme case in this situation,"
said Dr. Matthew Messina, a suburban Cleveland dentist who publicizes the
risks of mouth piercing for the American Dental Association.
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- "There is a risk of infection. . . . Unfortunately,
the patient here kind of lost the lottery."
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- Hill, 30, went to Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical
Center on Aug. 20, complaining of chest pains, extreme drowsiness and reduced
movement on his right side. A battery of tests showed he had bacterial
endocarditis, which had eaten away one of his heart valves to the point
that it had broken off a part of the valve and sent it into his bloodstream.
It then lodged in his brain and caused the stroke, said Dr. Jeffrey Silver,
Hill's cardiothoracic surgeon.
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- Hill, a machinist from the Northwest Side and father
of three, had emergency heart valve replacement surgery two days later.
His condition improved steadily, but his doctors still couldn't figure
out what caused him to get so sick.
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- The bacterium that besieged him is among several different
varieties of strep infections that can live in our mouths and get into
our bloodstream after dental work or other mouth cuts. But Hill hadn't
been to the dentist recently and didn't appear to have any sores.
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- He later told his doctors about his tongue and lip rings,
which he removed in early May and late June, respectively.
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- "He didn't have any of the hardware in when he came
in . . . and it wasn't really obvious because the piercings had been out
for a good long time,'' said Dr. Victor Forys, who initially treated Hill
at Our Lady of the Resurrection. Hill went home from the hospital Wednesday.
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- "He's a healthy young man, and he did nothing to
bring this on other than to have the piercing," Silver said. "Anybody
undergoing a piercing in the mouth is going to be subject to this risk."
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- Those in the body-piercing business, however, don't see
it that way. Severe infections can be avoided, they say, if people keep
piercings clean and call for help at the first sight of infection.
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- "I've been in the industry 10 years, and this is
the first time I've seen something this serious,'' said Hank Bangcock,
a senior body piercer at Chicago Tattooing & Piercing, 922 W. Belmont.
"Most people who get a piercing have the common sense to keep up with
the hygiene."
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- Hill, whose speech still is slurred from his stroke,
said he cleaned his piercings every night. He said he sought medical help
about two months ago at another Chicago hospital but that doctors there
said he was OK.
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- His near-death experience, he said, will allow him to
pass on valuable advice to his children, Andrew, 7, Rebecca, 5, and William
Jr., 3, if they someday want to pierce their bodies.
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- "I'll just tell them, 'Be yourself,' because Daddy
tried to be somebody else, like his idol, and look at what he got himself
into," Hill said. "If they don't like you as you are, move on."
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- Copyright 2000, Digital Chicago Inc. http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-pierce31.html
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