Girl Gets Flesh-Eating Infection From Game*

(CBS) ST. GEORGE, Utah A teenage Utah girl barely survived a dangerous
flesh-eating bacteria that she received after playing a game at school -
in which students scratch one another for as long as possible.

Officials say the 14-year-old girl was playing the "ABC game" in class,
the object of which is for kids to see how long they can tolerate
someone finger-scratching the letters of the alphabet onto their skin.

In this case, the girl received what's known as necrotizing fasciitis -
an infection in which toxins destroy skin and muscle - through a scratch
on her hand. The infection can be deadly.

The girl received the bacteria last month, and has since undergone seven
surgeries to remove tissue infected with the flesh-eating toxins.

At first, doctors were not sure the girl would survive and considered
amputating her arm to keep it from spreading. Now, they don't believe an
amputation is necessary but say the arm will likely lose some functionality.

"Necrotizing fasciitis has a very high fatality rate that can approach
as much as 60 percent," said Nicholas Bird, medical director for
hyperbaric medicine at Dixie Regional Medical Center. "If someone
doesn't die, they're very likely to lose a limb or a part of a limb."

"She wound up with this infection with a small scratch on the skin and
that was enough of a break in the skin to allow this bacteria to just
take over her arm," Bird said.

School officials in Washington County say they weren't even aware of the
game - or its dangerous potential - before this incident.

"Nobody had been aware of it (the ABC game) at all until then," said
Marshall Topham, assistant superintendent for secondary education for
the Washington County School District. "Every science class prepared a
unit of instruction on this type of infection and the serious nature of
this type of infection."

The girl is recovering, but faces two more surgeries and several oxygen
treatments which will help her damaged tissue and muscle repair.

The bacteria itself is actually very common and is present on
essentially everyone. However, it is not known why it effects some
people and not others.