A couple of years ago my brother was visiting at his son’s over Thanksgiving. Toward the end of the weekend, his ring finger on his left hand started hurting and then his whole hand started hurting.
By the time he got home that Sunday his finger and then his hand became swollen and was hot to the touch. By Monday morning he had a red streak running up his hand all the way up to his elbow and was in extreme pain. He went to his doctor that same day and his doctor immediately sent him to the hospital where he was quickly admitted and later diagnosed with cellulitis Staphylococcus aureus.
He spent over a month in the hospital on IV antibiotics and had to have surgery on his finger to remove the infected tissue followed by daily whirlpool therapy. And when he got home he was home administered IV antibiotics for another month.
At one point the doctors were considering amputation of not just his finger but his hand because if they couldn’t stop the infection from spreading, it could be fatal.
They don’t know how he got this but suspected it was from a spider bite, perhaps a Brown Recluse. He had just before Thanksgiving, been working in his yard and clearing dead branches and leaves and was not wearing gloves as he usually did.
The infection and the surgery destroyed the tendon in his ring finger and is permanently frozen in a curled up position.
Here's a picture my SIL took while he was in the hospital:
