MONTGOMERY POLICE
Facility Cleaned After Officer Is Hospitalized for Strep
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Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Montgomery County officials scrubbed down portions of a police training facility Sunday after an officer contracted a strep infection that has him hospitalized in critical condition.
County health officials stressed the cleaning was a precaution and said it is unknown how the officer developed the infection. Strep bacteria are typically passed through coughing or contact with skin wounds, a county health spokeswoman said.
The officer, Thomas "T.J." Bomba, 28, is at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, a hospital spokeswoman said yesterday. A public Web site created to update the officer's family and friends of his condition said he had developed a strep infection that turned into toxic shock syndrome.
Streptococcus bacteria are very common, and millions of Americans develop relatively mild illnesses such as strep throat every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In some cases, the infections become more serious, leading to conditions such as streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. As many as 1,800 people die in the United States of such illnesses each year, according to the CDC.
Attempts to reach Bomba's family through the hospital spokeswoman were not successful. A police spokesman declined to comment. Bomba received the department's Award for Valor in 2007.
Tributes to Bomba are pouring into the Web site:
"You're the strongest person we know. If anyone can beat this it's you," a friend wrote Monday night.
"TJ we are so stunned by what has happened to you and how such a big strong guy could be brought down by a little bacteria," a family member wrote a few hours earlier.
According to the Web site, Bomba began feeling ill June 23. He was experiencing muscle soreness under his right arm and soon noticed discoloration and swelling. He went to Shady Grove Adventist Hospital and was eventually moved to the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore.
Workers cleaned and disinfected parts of the training facility Sunday, said Mary Anderson, a spokeswoman for the county's Department of Health and Human Services. The facility is part of a police and firefighting complex in Rockville.
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