TOM PATTERSON IS DYING . HE HAS BEEN FOR MONTHS . IN AND OUT OF CONSCIOUSNESS , WRACKED WITH PAIN AND HALLUCINATIONS , HE LAYS CONFINED TO HIS HOSPITAL BED , A SHADOW OF THE MAN HE ONCE WAS .
Around him , there are more shadows in the room . He senses them , and sometimes when he opens his eyes , he can see . He sees a nurse beside him , wishing him a happy birthday . He is 69 . In the background , a song plays , the Beatles ’ “ While My Guitar Gently Weeps .” Patterson ’ s wife , Steffanie , comes into focus . She ’ s weeping too , telling him she loves him , but that there is nothing else doctors can do . She asks if he wants to keep fighting . But Patterson cannot move or speak . He can ’ t give a thumbs up because he can ’ t find his hands .
He is filled with despair until noticing the rest of the room , the surrounding shadows becoming doctors and friends standing around him . He finds his hands . One of them is holding Steffanie ’ s . He squeezes . Yes , he shouts voicelessly . I want to fight . I want to live .
They had always wanted to go to Egypt . Over Thanksgiving break in 2015 , Patterson , a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine , and his wife , Steffanie Strathdee , associate dean of Global Health Sciences and Harold Simon Professor of Global Health , set out to cross another item off their bucket list . When they returned to San Diego many weeks later , Patterson would be deathly ill . He would soon slip into a coma , plagued by hallucinations , intense pain and something worse :
a multidrug resistant strain of a bacterium called Acinetobacter baumannii , an opportunistic and often deadly pathogen widely known as one of the world ’ s most dangerous superbugs . Indeed , Patterson ’ s infection would defy doctors in three countries and virtually every modern antibiotic .
“ That ’ s a period of my life I don ’ t remember ,” he says . “ There was so much pain that it ’ s almost beyond your ability to cope . I ’ m happy to not remember .”
He was able to fight back , nonetheless , thanks to the extraordinary efforts of his wife , his doctor and a network of colleagues and staff at UC San Diego Health . The effort was compounded by researchers across the country and world , many of them strangers yet rallying to help save his life using an experimental , lastditch therapy based upon bacteria-eating viruses called bacteriophages .
The word bacteriophage derives from Greek for “ bacteria eater .” As ubiquitous as they are ancient , phages outnumber every other form of life on the planet . They exist anywhere bacteria exist — on land , sea and air , on your skin and inside your gut where , says Robert “ Chip ” Schooley , MD , chief of the Division of Infectious Disease at UC San Diego School of Medicine and the head of Patterson ’ s medical team , they perform a “ recurring Darwinian dance ” with bacteria .
In the early 1900s , phages promised to be a new kind of anti-bacterial therapy .
But they are finicky eaters and difficult to work with . Each strain of virus targets only a particular bacterium , with both predator and prey constantly evolving new tools of attack and defense . Phage therapy fell out of favor in the United States and most of Europe with the advent of antibiotics , the presumed wonder drugs . Only in places like Russia and Poland did significant phage research continue , though it was largely ignored until recent rising global antimicrobial resistance rendered the wonder drugs much less wondrous .
On vacation in Egypt , Patterson and Strathdee are thoroughly enjoying their first few days abroad . They see the main sights yet also make a point to go off the beaten path . They visit the tourist areas in Luxor ; Patterson crawls into the dark bowels of the Red Pyramid near Cairo . A few days later , on a Nile River cruise ship , he becomes violently and persistently ill . At first , Steffanie thinks food poisoning . They are referred to a local clinic for treatment . Tom ’ s condition worsens . Steffanie calls Schooley back at UC San Diego . They suspect pancreatitis , an inflammation of the pancreas . Egyptian doctors agree . Patterson is given antibiotics and , occasionally , pain medication for his now-ceaseless agony . He drifts in and out of consciousness , and the hallucinations start . He is sicker than ever .
36 TRITON | FALL 2017