WEST BEND, Wis. -- Just a month ago, Greg Manteufel was a long way from a hospital bed.
Dawn Manteufel says her husband was perfectly healthy. But what they initially thought was the flu -- landed Greg in the emergency room.
"It hit him with a vengeance. Bruising all over him. Looked like someone beat him up with a baseball bat," Dawn said.
She says life as they knew it changed forever.
Blood tests revealed an infection caused by the bacteria capnocytophaga.
"It took a week, and they were taking his legs," Dawn Manteufel said.
The infection very likely entering Greg's system by something so common: Getting licked by a dog, probably his own.
"This type of bacteria comes from the saliva of dogs," said Froedtert & MCW Infectious Disease Specialist
Dr. Silvia Munoz-Price.
She is an infectious disease specialist with Froedtert and the medical college. "This infection in his blood triggered a very severe response in his body."
That response caused Greg's blood pressure to drop and the circulation in his limbs to decrease rapidly.
"Sometimes it decreases so much that the arms and legs just die," Dr. Munoz-Price said.
It forced doctors to amputate.
"We can't wrap our heads around it that all of the sudden, he's 48 years old and been around dogs all of his life, and this happens," Dawn Manteufel said.
Still, the Manteufels are looking at what wasn't taken away. "He kept just saying, 'Take what you need, but keep me alive.' And they did -- surprisingly enough, they did do it," Dawn said.
Doctors say Greg's case is simply a fluke
"More than 99 percent of the people that have dogs will never have this issue. It's just chance," Dr. Munoz-Price.
The family has raised more than $20,000 to help with Greg's recovery.
