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Getty Family Again Faces Tragedy in Death of Heir

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AndrewAndrew Getty was the 47-year-old heir to the Getty oil fortune but on Tuesday, he was found dead in his Hollywood Hills home. Sadly, the family has faced several other tragedies over the years, in spite of J. Paul Getty having a net worth into the billions of dollars.

According to Ed Winter, Assistant chief with the Los Angeles Coroner’s office, while the death appears to have been from natural causes, the official report will not be available for up to 10 weeks pending the results of toxicology reports.

Initially, the coroner’s office had ruled Getty’s death an accident based on medication found at the scene but now, it appears there was accident or foul play involved. Reportedly, Getty had complained to close friends over the past several months of not feeling well.

Andrew’s parents, Gordon and Ann Getty, released a statement confirming that their son had in fact died. However, no additional information was provided. Jack Richter, spokesman for the police department confirmed a call came out from an unidentified woman around 2:15 pm. Upon arrival, Getty’s body was in the home’s bathroom and the female who called was questioned.

Getty had lived in the home since 1996 and interestingly, the very woman who made the 911 call had at one time had a restraining order placed against her by Getty. Andrew is one of four sons of multi-billionaire Gordon Getty who is ranked as one of the wealthiest men in America. Gordon is the son of J. Paul Getty, founder of Getty Oil.

In 2011, J. Paul Getty III, another one of Gordon’s sons, passed away at 54. When this son was a teenager, he was kidnapped in Rome and to prove the perpetrators were serious about the $2.7 million ransom, they sent a newspaper part of J. Paul Getty III’s ear.

The Getty family paid the requested random and after being held captive for five months, the son was finally released by his captors. Throughout the years, the Getty family has been plagued by numerous illnesses, addictions, and disasters and now, the family faces another tragedy in the death of Andrew.

The woman who called 911 is believed to be an ex-girlfriend of Andrew’s and while she has not been accused of any crime, she remains somewhat of a person of interest. They are unsure why she was at the home and if she was a witness to anything that might shed light on what happened.

The Real and Hidden Dangers of CRE

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CRERoughly 160 patients within the UCLA health system were warned that they may have been given a procedure with contaminated equipment. The bacteria that infected the equipment are called carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, otherwise referred to as CRE. So far, the bacteria have been confirmed in seven people and of those, two died.

There are several types of drug-resistant bacteria with CRE being one. Others include methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA and Clostridium diffcile or C diff. These bacteria have evolved to the point that no known antibiotics can kill them. Because of this, the bacteria are called superbugs.

The problem is that if a drug-resistant bacteria like CRE enters the bloodstream, an infection developed that antibiotics cannot fight. Unfortunately, approximately 50% of people who get an infection of this type die.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug-resistant bacterial infections are extremely common, with at minimum two million people in the US alone becoming infected annually, with about 23,000 dying. The agency continues saying that 1 in every 25 patients has at least one infection that is health-related on any given day.

In 2011, the number of healthcare-related infections in US acute care hospitals reached 722,000. A huge challenge is that often, these infections involve people already in the hospital who are sick and have compromised immune systems, making it difficult for the body to fight off infection.

Bacteria are extremely small and therefore, can hide in spaces that are impossible to see, like endoscopes in the case of the UCLA breakout. Regardless of how much equipment is cleaned and sterilized, some bacteria remain. Although healthcare professionals are doing everything possible to keep hospital settings safe, these invisible bacteria find their way into equipment, drains, and other hidden places. Bacteria then get onto the hands and clothing of workers and passed on to patients.

The other challenge is that there are few drugs that can treat CRE and other drug-resistant infections. Those used only as a last resort are carbapenems but if this does not work, a patient faces a dire situation.

These bacteria are capable of producing Klebsiella pneumonia carbapenemase, which is an enzyme that causes a wide range of antibiotics to become totally ineffective. Some of these include cephalosporins, penicillins, and beta-lactams.

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