Tragic, but it happens. The only treatment which has a chance is dose dense chemotherapy. We knew someone who went to the hospital with a perforated colon. She was stabilized at first, and felt better, but her physician told my husband privately that she was going to die. Systemic infections simply spread too rapidly, and the patient dies of sepsis.

Very sad story, uncommon but not Very Very sad story, uncounheard of. Doctors like myself see this from time to time. The military is not at fault-- the vast majority of fevers go away spontaneously within 1-2 days. The headline is incorrect. This is known as multiple-organ failure (and several other names), not atrophy.

The problem is that, in every agegroup, such cases of fever early on are often unattended by other clinical signs, including headache or bodily weakness, of impending or actual septicaemia. This is classically so in meningococcal disease and in the rarer pneumococcal septicaemia whose clinical course to death can also be astonishingly swift. In hospitals and family practices, many times a day doctors encounter patients with such fever whose cause cannot be determined by clinical examination alone. The burning and often nervewracking question in every case is always, if and when to investigate to try to rule out a potentially developing septicaemia by taking a blood sample and bacteriologically culturing it for a potentially lethal organism. But a reliable result often cannot be produced by such culturing within the time that an untreated infection can become lethal. Urgent blood sampling can assist in the diagnosis of septicaemia in other and more rapid ways too, such as if one discovers that the number of certain white cells in the blood is either abnormally elevated or, more sinisterly, much depressed; or if certain specific bacterial marker products are present in the blood. Or, in some cases of pneumococcal and other septicaemias, if one simply Gram-stains a smear of a the patient's centrifugally spun-down blood or cererospinal fluid on a glass slide and examines it under the microscope to see if bacteria are already visibly detectable in the white cells or floating free. The frequent and real inability to diagnose dangerous infections in time raises the question of whether the clinician should straightaway administer antibiotics known to be active against the bacterium possibly causing the fever. In times past, clinicians were very free with the oral administration of penicillin (still potent against the meningococcus) in many cases of fever of cause unknown at the time of the patient first presenting. But life-threatening early septicaemia needs to be treated by intravenous, not oral, antibiotics. Even intramuscular injection cannot be relied upon in such cases. So, on first sighting a patient with "isolated" fever, clinicians are caught in the dilemma of not knowing whether infection by a dangerous organism is the cause of it; but knowing that by the time the result of blood culture (if undertaken)becomes available, the patient may be unsavable if antibiotics have not been given straightaway; as we say, "blindly"; that is without the bacterium being yet identified. So the question becomes, "In cases of fever unaccompanied by other clinical signs but possibly caused by dangerous bacteria, is it ever or always safe to with-hold antibiotic therapy before blood culture result become available?". The answer to that can be "Yes", but only if the patient is properly monitored at frequent intervals (sometimes as often as hourly) for signs of developing serious infection. Obviously this sometimes places a huge and unreasonable responsibility on non-medical observers, including parents and friends, and obviously the patient himself; especially if deterioration in his condition is rapid and results in the mental confusion so common in septicaemias .

Israel lost a soldier who would have put his life on the line to protect those who simply wont do it for themselves. Who is to blame? Who knows. What I do know is that before being drafted all draftees must be properly screened medically. You have the Drs, you have the equipment. This didnt have to happen. However what I do find unfortunate is that in times like this, agendas seem to be the number one priority The family is hurt, they strike out in pain and the IDF throws the pain right back at them. The IDF should be bigger than that. Sometimes, being the bigger man is to be humble and to ally your concerns with the family in private. The IDF is not a media event. Its a life and death issue.

May his memory be blessed.

It's really no secret that when young recruits are drafted they all receive a series of standard vaccinations... is it possible that this young man had a reaction to one of those which caused a systems collapse? In other words the IDF should be careful with their recruits. I understand the family's feelings and send them condolences.

family be comforted among the mourners of Zion. We will never know why young brave men die and vile terrorists live, only Hashem knows these things and He is not giving is the wisdom why.

I see soldiers in Bat-Galim running and training everyday. Some of the soldiers are pushed to the limit, recoiling in pain. The training, especially in the elite units are physically draining and close to impossible for most human beings. They don't get enough sleep and are asked to overcome hours of physicall challenges that can easily due damage by exhaustion and system failure. A healthy young man like him, who was accepted into the unite for his good health, should not have died.

English speakers can read and say "meningococcal disease" and "pneumococcal septicaemia". In Hebrew, these and other ailments are simply called "violent germs". The Israel public isn't aware in the slightest of what symptoms to look out for - and I'm not sure that the medical professionals are that much better. Awareness - including terminology - would help. And while we're at it, cancer isn't "a hard disease", as it's described by many Israelis, including the press. It's a word, not a sentence. Pretending that it is something else won't make it go away.

As a veteran of the relevant elite unit, I can personally attest that Karin's comment, while well meaning, is off-base. Our training is tough but far from "close to impossible for most human beings." More to the point, in the most elite units like Dvirs, the training is constantly being evaluated, tested and many safety precautions are in place for the strenuous training. In fact, less "elite units" tend to have far more dangerous training, since less attention (less tests, less medical staff, worse trained commanders, BL: units w/o the $ of the IAF) is paid to the very harsh training regimens they are put through. We all agree "a young man like him..should not have died." Likewise, pressure on the army to investigate and ensure to its best ability that such an incident is never repeated is in everyone's best interest.

I am happy to hear that i was wrong.