This incident happened last Tuesday and I've been meaning to write this post earlier.
It was already noon time when Aldo returned home from his basketball game. He was limping and I asked him what had happened. I was thinking that he must have injured himself during the match. Apparently, he told me that he accidentally stepped on a rusty nail while walking the dogs earlier that morning before he even went for his basketball game! The nail went through the bottom of his slippers and pricked into his skin. There was so much blood but he pressed the wound to let the blood out (thank God!). When I looked at his foot, it was swollen and red. Why didn't you tell me that you had injured yourself, I asked him. He said that it was not pain that morning and he thought that it would be alright after a couple of hours or so. However it was not so. The pain gradually progressed that for a few days he limped whenever he walked. The possibility of tetanus infection was on my mind as the incident happened few hours earlier. The bacteria must have invaded his bloodstream! I gave him homeopathy medicine Ledum 200c as I know this is the best remedy against tetanus. If you can't get any homeopathy medicine off hand, please get a tetanus vaccination right away. Tetanus (commonly called lockjaw) is a disease that can be fatal. The bacteria (Clostridium tetani) enter into the body through puncture wound contaminated with soil, street dust, animal feces, etc. The early symptoms of tetanus infection are jaw or neck stiffness, difficulty swallowing, headache, irritability and localized itching or pain at the site of the injury. Later, there may be spasm of the neck, back, and abdominal muscles.
What can you do if you or your loved ones had a punctured wound such as nail pricked and help seem to be far from sight??  The best way to protect an injured person from the tetanus disease is to thoroughly clean the wound with copious amounts of water and to encourage the injury to bleed profusely. Press the wound firmly to let the blood and any traces of dirt out from the wound. Cover it with clean bandage and take the person to the nearest hospital if the wound is deep (about half inch or more).