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Darr's brother David passed away early Saturday morning. He contracted a rare infection known as necrotizing fasciitis caused by the streptococcus bacteria. I had to look this up to better understand what it means. Wikipedia explains necrotizing fasciitis as follows:

Necrotizing fasciitis...commonly known as "flesh-eating bacteria", is a rare infection of the deeper layers of skin and subcutaneous tissues...The bacteria do not actually eat the tissue. They cause the destruction of skin and muscle by releasing toxins...Patients with necrotizing fasciitis typically have a fever and appear very ill. More severe cases progress within hours...This disease is one of the fastest-spreading infections known. Even with top-notch care today, the prognosis can be bleak, with a mortality rate of around 20 percent.

The Centers for Disease Control(CDC) reports there are approximately 9,400 cases of group A streptococcal disease per year, and that 600 of those are necrotizing fasciitis.

Darr and his dad were about an hour east of Vancouver, B.C., on their way to visit relatives in Kelowna, Canada, (it's Canada's Thanksgiving weekend) Friday evening when I received the call from Darr's mom that Dave was in the hospital. They immediately turned around and headed to the hospital. We later learned that a call had been placed to 9-1-1 when a passerby noticed Dave was unconscious on a bench somewhere in the city. He regained consciousness at the hospital long enough to give the nurses his mom's phone number. When Darr and Jim arrived the prognosis was not good. Doctors performed two surgeries over the course of several hours but Dave was too unstable to be moved from the operating room to ICU for some time. He did not regain consciousness. I made arrangements with my brother to come and get Beauty and left Portland around 11:30pm. Dave died shortly before I arrived at the hospital around 4am. He was 31 years old.

A service for Dave will be held in two weeks.