A boy on my son’s soccer team was recently admitted to the hospital with “super bug” infection in his leg that the coach said began as a small scrape on his shin. Now, the boy may lose his leg to an amputation. How can that happen? He was perfectly healthy.

Without looking at the boy’s medical records and history, it would be dangerous to guess as to what is happening, but from what you write, it is possible that the boy has an infection called community-acquired Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or CA-MRSA. MRSA has been around for a while but used to be only in hospital settings, but now it can be found in the community. Doctors differentiate the two by saying they are community-acquired or hospital-aquired. The infections caused by MRSA are very serious.

Children with CA-MRSA infections can get them through a relatively small cut or scrape, frequently during a sports event. The problem with an infection like this is that usually, we take care of minor cuts and scrapes by cleaning and dressing. Watching for infection (redness, swelling, and warmth) is important but even if infections set it, we’re used to them being dealt with fairly quickly. Unfortunately though, if MRSA sets in, parents have no way of knowing right away if the infection is severe or not and the child may not get medical help quickly enough. The infection may also be missed by the doctors, who aren’t expecting to find it. As a result, the infection could spread quickly and result in damage to the bone or muscles.