Man accused of attempted burglary while nude in Fort Myers; covers head with white clothCape Coral man accused of breaking into 6 different businesses
FORT MYERS Man accused of attempted burglary while nude in Fort Myers; covers head with white cloth The Lee County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man who stands accused of attempted burglary while wearing nothing but a white cloth over his head.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral man accused of breaking into 6 different businesses A man has been arrested after allegedly breaking into six different businesses in Southeast Cape Coral this month.
COLLIER COUNTY DOH-Collier issues blue-green algae health alert for Lake Avalon It’s official: the Florida Department of Health in Collier County (DOH-Collier) has issued a health alert for the presence of harmful blue-green algae toxins in Lake Avalon.
lehigh acres 20 students treated for heat exhaustion on Lehigh High School football field The Tice Fire Department treated around 20 students for heat exhaustion on the Lehigh Senior High School football field.
PORT CHARLOTTE Market Circle on Enterprise Drive in Charlotte County to be closed for road work A portion of Enterprise Drive will be closed temporarily for road work along the mill and overlay on Market Circle in Charlotte County.
Tim Aten Knows: Collier details road projects in Estates Design of the Randall Boulevard widening and Randall-Immokalee Road intersection project in Golden Gate Estates began in mid-2022, but construction is not expected to start for another two years.
FGCU hosts emergency disaster drill training Florida Gulf Coast University is more ready than ever after hosting an emergency disaster drill training to educate students on how first responders prepare for crises.
the weather authority Few showers along a front moving through this Friday afternoon The Weather Authority is tracking a cold front dropping temperatures along with a few afternoon showers this Friday.
the weather authority Tracking Tropical Storm Sara; likely to dissipate over Central America The Weather Authority is monitoring Tropical Storm Sara, which is expected to strengthen slightly before dissipation over Central America.
NAPLES “Don’t give up. You’re worth it. God sees you.” St. Matthew’s graduates speak out Susan and Dustin Cheatwood credit the Justin’s Place recovery program for saving their lives and stopping them from becoming a statistic.
ENGLEWOOD EAST FEMA relocation notice shocks mobile home park residents The Federal Emergency Management Agency issued relocation notices to residents living in one of their temporary housing parks in Englewood East.
Six dogs rescued after being left in a box by SR-29 Six dogs, including four puppies and two adult dogs, were found stranded in an empty box on the corner of Experimental Road and State Road 29 in Immokalee.
FORT MYERS Players of the Week: Dunbar’s Ken’Dahrius Green and Jeremy Ware Dunbar High School’s Special Teams unit has shown out these past two weeks, scoring a special teams touchdown in wins over South Fort Myers and Fort Myers.
NAPLES Collier County golfer lands shot on the back of an alligator “Play it safe.” That’s what Greg Irving thought he may be doing when he swung his puck Wednesday morning while golfing with his friend Joe Pack.
PUNTA GORDA Southwest Florida veterans honored during round trip honor flight Veterans from Southwest Florida made a round trip to Washington, DC, and back in honor of their service.
FORT MYERS Man accused of attempted burglary while nude in Fort Myers; covers head with white cloth The Lee County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man who stands accused of attempted burglary while wearing nothing but a white cloth over his head.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral man accused of breaking into 6 different businesses A man has been arrested after allegedly breaking into six different businesses in Southeast Cape Coral this month.
COLLIER COUNTY DOH-Collier issues blue-green algae health alert for Lake Avalon It’s official: the Florida Department of Health in Collier County (DOH-Collier) has issued a health alert for the presence of harmful blue-green algae toxins in Lake Avalon.
lehigh acres 20 students treated for heat exhaustion on Lehigh High School football field The Tice Fire Department treated around 20 students for heat exhaustion on the Lehigh Senior High School football field.
PORT CHARLOTTE Market Circle on Enterprise Drive in Charlotte County to be closed for road work A portion of Enterprise Drive will be closed temporarily for road work along the mill and overlay on Market Circle in Charlotte County.
Tim Aten Knows: Collier details road projects in Estates Design of the Randall Boulevard widening and Randall-Immokalee Road intersection project in Golden Gate Estates began in mid-2022, but construction is not expected to start for another two years.
FGCU hosts emergency disaster drill training Florida Gulf Coast University is more ready than ever after hosting an emergency disaster drill training to educate students on how first responders prepare for crises.
the weather authority Few showers along a front moving through this Friday afternoon The Weather Authority is tracking a cold front dropping temperatures along with a few afternoon showers this Friday.
the weather authority Tracking Tropical Storm Sara; likely to dissipate over Central America The Weather Authority is monitoring Tropical Storm Sara, which is expected to strengthen slightly before dissipation over Central America.
NAPLES “Don’t give up. You’re worth it. God sees you.” St. Matthew’s graduates speak out Susan and Dustin Cheatwood credit the Justin’s Place recovery program for saving their lives and stopping them from becoming a statistic.
ENGLEWOOD EAST FEMA relocation notice shocks mobile home park residents The Federal Emergency Management Agency issued relocation notices to residents living in one of their temporary housing parks in Englewood East.
Six dogs rescued after being left in a box by SR-29 Six dogs, including four puppies and two adult dogs, were found stranded in an empty box on the corner of Experimental Road and State Road 29 in Immokalee.
FORT MYERS Players of the Week: Dunbar’s Ken’Dahrius Green and Jeremy Ware Dunbar High School’s Special Teams unit has shown out these past two weeks, scoring a special teams touchdown in wins over South Fort Myers and Fort Myers.
NAPLES Collier County golfer lands shot on the back of an alligator “Play it safe.” That’s what Greg Irving thought he may be doing when he swung his puck Wednesday morning while golfing with his friend Joe Pack.
PUNTA GORDA Southwest Florida veterans honored during round trip honor flight Veterans from Southwest Florida made a round trip to Washington, DC, and back in honor of their service.
If you think back to the time immediately following Hurricane Ian, people were concerned about what types of harmful bacteria might be lurking in the flood water. The fear of contracting an infection became a reality for a Lee County man. His is one of the few reported cases worldwide of mycobacteria so unique that it took months to identify, and he’s still fighting it today. WINK News health and medical reporter Amy Oshier has his exclusive story. “All of the property was covered by water,” Ed Lode said. Driven by the hurricane, Estero Bay washed over Ed and Sue Lode’s neighborhood, flooding homes and everything in its path. The Lodes spent months cleaning up. “I had a lot of work to do to try to pull the place back together,” Ed said. Like the rest of Southwest Florida, he rolled up his sleeves and got busy. Never giving thought to the injections he’s recently gotten to ease the pain of carpal tunnel syndrome. “I got a couple of shots, one between the finger one on the wrist,” he said. These unrelated actions created a perfect storm for infection. We had two injection sites and bacteria in the water. And it just was bad timing Ed Lode Bad timing and the beginning of a month-long ordeal to identify the pathogen that was ripping his skin apart. Even the images are painful to look at. A single liter of salty water can hold up to a billion bacteria that are natural in the environment. They don’t pose a threat unless they spill into our environment and get access through an entry point in the body. Lode’s medical mystery was the entry point for Lee Health doctor Johanna Brown. She’s an infectious disease specialist. “We take care of patients who have very complicated infections,” Dr. Brown said. With weeping wounds and massive swelling, Ed presented a challenge. Dr. Brown determined it was some type of mycobacterium, but local labs couldn’t identify it. Ed described the excruciating process of getting answers. “They had to do surgery to clean out the infection sites and get tissue so they could try to identify the bacteria,” he said. Dr. Brown said the situation was confounding. “The smears from the samples that the surgeon sent were positive for the organism, but yet we could not grow it. And that is what was driving everybody crazy,” she said. Ed Lode’s hand after Hurricane Ian In the meantime, Ed was taking a complicated combination of antibiotics. “About three different drugs, one IV that was extremely powerful, and he was not getting better,” Dr. Brown said. That’s when she made a decision for which Lode is forever grateful. She reached out to a lab across the country and asked for help. “And we finally are able to put him on the right regimen combination of three drugs, based on case reports, because you’re not going to see a lot of literature on this particular organism is so rare,” she said. The course of therapy may take another year. A lagging reminder of Hurricane Ian. “That’s how we think he got it, from this environmental destruction,” said Dr. Brown. Without a proper diagnosis and treatment, the infection would have continued to thrive. Instead, his hands are healing. We are the Sherlock Holmes of internal medicine, and we’re very proud of that because that’s exactly this case Dr. Johanna Brown, Lee Health infectious disease specialist As life returns to normal, the Lodes are thankful that his recovery is in hand.