Severe Child Abuse Presenting as Polymicrobial Bacteremia

Life-threatening polymicrobial bacteremia in a 7 1/2-year-old boy, was found to be caused by willful contamination of i.v. drips by the mother. The boy, as well as his diseased twin sister, had histories of long-lasting chronic otitis of unknown etiology. The importance of obvious pathologic psycho-social factors was overlooked, and diagnosis was only reached by close collaboration with clinical microbiologists.