Cayla Dietz

November 29, 2022

Youngstown State University

Eiryn McKay
 The article I chose relating to my patient is entitled “Legionnaires Disease” written by a

group of professors who work for Nitte University Journal of Health Science. This article was

interesting for me because I don’t know much about this type of pneumonia since it is not very

common. The article starts by defining Legionnaires Disease as a type of pneumonia caused by

Legionella bacteria. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, and dyspnea. My

patient presented to the emergency department with diarrhea, vomiting, dyspnea, and was altered

mentally so this tied in her symptoms with Legionnaires symptoms, since these are common

symptoms of multiple diseases. Legionnaires Disease is caused by breathing in mist or inhaling

water contaminated with the bacteria. This baffles me a little because the patient and her husband

were both exposed to the bacteria while staying in a motel in another state while traveling for

their daughter’s wedding. I was a little surprised that the patient was affected and not the

husband. However, in the article it explains that a risk factor for contracting this bacterium is

poor immune function, which my patient has a history of granulomatous disease. This interested

me because I wonder how many hotels have this bacterium from poor cleaning and air filtration

and we don’t know because our immune systems are healthy, like my patient’s husband wasn’t

affected and she was due to her history of an immune insufficiency. I also thought it was

interesting that the article mentions about ninety percent of Legionnaires Disease cases go

misdiagnosed because it is a relatively rare form of pneumonia and can present with a wide

variation of symptoms. The patient waited a few days and her symptoms worsened at home

before coming to the emergency room, which caused the Legionnaires Disease to affect the rest

of her body. This patient was the most interesting patient I’ve gotten to care for and was a huge

learning opportunity to me. This article helped me better understand my patient and I now feel

more educated on Legionnaires Disease if I happen to come across it again in my career.