August 28, 2025 • 9 mins
Dr. Jim Keany, Chief Medical Officer at Dignity Health St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, joins The Bill Handel Show for 'Medical News'! Dr. Keany talks with Bill about a new form of immunotherapy that switches on your immune system to kill cancer cells, COVID rising in California, AI making humans dumb, and a flesh-eating bacteria that is killing people.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time for a medical segment, which we do every Wednesday,
with doctor Jim Kiney, chief medical officer for Dignity Saint
Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, and an er doctor.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning, Jim, Good morning Bill. Okay, you knew I.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Was going to do this story, the flesh eating bacteria
story of how could I not? What a fabulous Oh,
just a fabulous So I'm trying to figure out the
words that I can't even start talking about how excited
I am about this. In any case, a quick story
and then we're going to really dive into it. One
(00:34):
of the best moments of my life is when I
was invited to an autopsy at UCLA and it's a
guy who had died of kidney failure, and so that
was no big deal.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
But right behind that room, right there was.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
An open door that I looked into and there was
a woman who had died of flesh eating bacteria. She
was heavy set, and it looked like a shark had
taken to huge chunk out of her thigh. I mean,
I thought she had stars start in Jaws. I mean,
it was that that gross and that graphic. So let's
(01:11):
have fun Jim talking about flesh eating bacteria and how
it's killing people.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Yeah, it is killing people, and it's really you know,
we're people are connecting it to warmer weather this year
because it does grow better in warm water, so we're
seeing it. You know, the cases have been at Florida
and yeah, this is a it's the particular bacteria in
this case is called Vibrio fugnific hands, which is from
(01:40):
shellfish and warm water, seawater, brackish water. And you can
be exposed to it even from like raw seafood or
raw oysters, so it really is everywhere. But once it
gets into your skin, it is super damaging and it
moves very quickly.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, and you were telling me about it. It moves
so quick quickly. There you are in the er room.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Because we've talked about this before because one of my
most exciting topics in the world flash eating bacteria. You
could actually see it working right there in front of you, right,
yeah exactly.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
I mean like people walk in and they have a
very painful area, and that's typically your first clue as
somebody comes in with something that doesn't look bad at all,
it just looks maybe a tiny bit red, but they
are screaming in pain. The pain is out of proportion
to what you're seeing, and it's because it's deeper and
it's moving quickly. And as you see that, you know,
(02:34):
you get vital signs. And immediately their vital signs will
be abnormal, their pulse will be high, their blood pressure
might already be low. As you move them back to
a room from the waiting area, you can start to
see it actually progressing. So you know, like I told you,
with one case I had that survived, I called the
ear nose and throat doctor because this guy had been
shaving and it was in his neck area, and I said, look, dude,
(02:56):
you're gonna have to trust me, book the operating room
and run. And you know they surgeons don't do that.
Surgeons aren't going to operate on somebody they've never looked at,
they've never talked to. But you know, based on our
twenty years of working together, he said, all right, Jim,
if that's what you're saying, I'll do it. And he
literally ran out of his office to the operating room.
We ran the guy in there and he was able
to get rid of all of it enough. Now the
(03:19):
guy was missing a lot of skin because it had
to be removed, and we had to transfer them to
a burn center where then they could do a lot
of the skin replacement.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
So have you had people die on you because the
flash eating bacteria?
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yes? Absolutely? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Is that one of those things when the doctors, when
you hit the lounge, you go, hey, let me tell
you what happened.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Today to me?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
No, not really, I mean we like to tell good stories. No,
we don't talk about that one. But yeah, I mean
there we you know, we're all kind of scared of
it in a way because it moves so fast and
it's so aggressive. Now, I got to say, though, that's
typically you know strap and you know streptococle infact and
staff infections. This Vibrio one is a little more survivable.
(04:05):
It doesn't move quite as fast. I mean, in this case,
about eighty percent of the people will survive with the
right treatment, but they may still need aggressive antibiotics and
aggressive interventional surgery to remove the infected areas.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
All right, so we get away from fun stuff and
let's move into some jim.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
You and I talk a lot about this sort of thing. COVID.
It is becoming news again.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
It's coming back, and I can't wait for the politics
to start, So what's going on here.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Btically, what we're seeing is higher positivity rates, increasing outpatient cases,
upticks and hospitalization so and emergency room as this are
going up, especially in seniors. So we're definitely seeing a resurgence.
It's not quite at the peak that it was last summer,
so it's a little better than the last summer, but
we are seeing it more. The concern of is that
(05:01):
because we've now politicized public health and there's been uncertainty
as far as guidelines, conflicting guidelines, and even the vaccine
landscape there's confusion because there's you know, issues of vaccine
licensure and eligibility criteria, and so people aren't necessarily out
(05:21):
there looking or getting the vaccine, and even when they
go look for it, a lot of places don't have
it yet, so you know, lots of problems they're adding
up to a potential for a worse outcome. But right
now it's under control and it is similar and actually
a little bit better than last year's.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Are we ever going to see people dying like we
did see during the course of the first stages of COVID.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
I hope not, because that was bad. I mean, that
was really bad. When we're talking about in Italy, especially
when I first started, the death rates of a thirty percent,
you know, and even here where we were seeing death
rates ten to twelve percent. Once it moved over to
the United States, that was awful. We're still seeing people
die from COVID, but a lot of them are you know,
(06:10):
advanced in age and have comorbid conditions like things like
emphysema or copd asthma. So you know, we're still seeing it,
but nowhere near the level of the first few days,
first days of this pandemic.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
And the vaccine for example, I'm a big fan of vaccinations,
as you know.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
When my kids, you know we're young, gave them the MMR.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Shots certainly distemper parvo shots GUARDASIL when they were four
years old. I mean, I did everything for the kids,
and I'm a big fan of doing myself. Our COVID
vaccinations Number one available easily. I know you said they're
difficult to get to where do we get them? And
(06:57):
number two do you suggest that people do get them
regularly like you suggest flu shots should be gotten every year?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah, I mean I tend to follow the expert guidelines
on these things, and to me the expert this point,
because RK has fired all the experts from the CDC's
Vaccine Advisory Committee, I would go with the American Academy
of Pediatric recommendations. I mean, they really Again, doctors don't
(07:28):
make money off these recommendations, and they don't make money
off giving the vaccines. They're trying to do the best
thing for children. They're recommending infants and children ages six
to twenty three months get the vaccine because they are
at a higher risk for having bad outcomes, and then
children too and older they should at least be offered
the vaccine, and then the parents or guardians can decide
(07:49):
on that after a conversation with them, especially if they're
in a high risk household where if they get it
and they give it to like a grandparent, they can
kill the grandparent. So, you know, I think that that
following those guidelines is very reasonable and the same thing
American in College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists are recommending that
people receive a booster or an updated vaccine at any
(08:13):
time during the pregnancy or if they're planning to become pregnant.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Let me ask you, is it like the flu.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Now the COVID vaccine where it mutates every year and
they have to guess which way it's going to go.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Yeah, but it's moving a little slower, so you know,
we're still in Omicron's season here. That's what this current
outbreak is Omicron. So if you've had the Omicron vaccine,
you probably have some partial immunity. Now the sub variant
is called stratus omicron stratus, and so yes, are they
modifying a vaccine for that, absolutely, and then it has
(08:47):
to get relicensed, so you probably do. If you got
an omicron vaccine in the past, you probably do still
have some immunity to it. But the booster for especially
high risk people would be advisable, right.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Jim as always, thanks, are you going to get vaccinated?
By the way, do you have to get vaccinated? I
know what you talked about when you were in the er.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Well, again, this is people are going to think this
is this is hypocritical, but I think it's you know,
you make a personal decision based on your experience. So
I've had I've had COVID eight times, I've had four vaccines.
So I talked to it and infections these guys and
he said, look, these don't seem to work for you.
I don't think there's any point in you getting them anymore.
So I still get the flu vaccine, but the COVID
(09:30):
vaccine doesn't seem to be helping me.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Oh good, So we'll follow your advice and no one
gets it. That's fair, Jim, Thank you, we'll talk again,
all right, Take care of
Time for a medical segment, which we do every Wednesday,
with doctor Jim Kiney, chief medical officer for Dignity Saint
Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, and an er doctor.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning, Jim, Good morning Bill. Okay, you knew I.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Was going to do this story, the flesh eating bacteria
story of how could I not? What a fabulous Oh,
just a fabulous So I'm trying to figure out the
words that I can't even start talking about how excited
I am about this. In any case, a quick story
and then we're going to really dive into it. One
(00:34):
of the best moments of my life is when I
was invited to an autopsy at UCLA and it's a
guy who had died of kidney failure, and so that
was no big deal.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
But right behind that room, right there was.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
An open door that I looked into and there was
a woman who had died of flesh eating bacteria. She
was heavy set, and it looked like a shark had
taken to huge chunk out of her thigh. I mean,
I thought she had stars start in Jaws. I mean,
it was that that gross and that graphic. So let's
(01:11):
have fun Jim talking about flesh eating bacteria and how
it's killing people.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Yeah, it is killing people, and it's really you know,
we're people are connecting it to warmer weather this year
because it does grow better in warm water, so we're
seeing it. You know, the cases have been at Florida
and yeah, this is a it's the particular bacteria in
this case is called Vibrio fugnific hands, which is from
(01:40):
shellfish and warm water, seawater, brackish water. And you can
be exposed to it even from like raw seafood or
raw oysters, so it really is everywhere. But once it
gets into your skin, it is super damaging and it
moves very quickly.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, and you were telling me about it. It moves
so quick quickly. There you are in the er room.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Because we've talked about this before because one of my
most exciting topics in the world flash eating bacteria. You
could actually see it working right there in front of you, right,
yeah exactly.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
I mean like people walk in and they have a
very painful area, and that's typically your first clue as
somebody comes in with something that doesn't look bad at all,
it just looks maybe a tiny bit red, but they
are screaming in pain. The pain is out of proportion
to what you're seeing, and it's because it's deeper and
it's moving quickly. And as you see that, you know,
(02:34):
you get vital signs. And immediately their vital signs will
be abnormal, their pulse will be high, their blood pressure
might already be low. As you move them back to
a room from the waiting area, you can start to
see it actually progressing. So you know, like I told you,
with one case I had that survived, I called the
ear nose and throat doctor because this guy had been
shaving and it was in his neck area, and I said, look, dude,
(02:56):
you're gonna have to trust me, book the operating room
and run. And you know they surgeons don't do that.
Surgeons aren't going to operate on somebody they've never looked at,
they've never talked to. But you know, based on our
twenty years of working together, he said, all right, Jim,
if that's what you're saying, I'll do it. And he
literally ran out of his office to the operating room.
We ran the guy in there and he was able
to get rid of all of it enough. Now the
(03:19):
guy was missing a lot of skin because it had
to be removed, and we had to transfer them to
a burn center where then they could do a lot
of the skin replacement.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
So have you had people die on you because the
flash eating bacteria?
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yes? Absolutely? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Is that one of those things when the doctors, when
you hit the lounge, you go, hey, let me tell
you what happened.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Today to me?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
No, not really, I mean we like to tell good stories. No,
we don't talk about that one. But yeah, I mean
there we you know, we're all kind of scared of
it in a way because it moves so fast and
it's so aggressive. Now, I got to say, though, that's
typically you know strap and you know streptococle infact and
staff infections. This Vibrio one is a little more survivable.
(04:05):
It doesn't move quite as fast. I mean, in this case,
about eighty percent of the people will survive with the
right treatment, but they may still need aggressive antibiotics and
aggressive interventional surgery to remove the infected areas.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
All right, so we get away from fun stuff and
let's move into some jim.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
You and I talk a lot about this sort of thing. COVID.
It is becoming news again.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
It's coming back, and I can't wait for the politics
to start, So what's going on here.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Btically, what we're seeing is higher positivity rates, increasing outpatient cases,
upticks and hospitalization so and emergency room as this are
going up, especially in seniors. So we're definitely seeing a resurgence.
It's not quite at the peak that it was last summer,
so it's a little better than the last summer, but
we are seeing it more. The concern of is that
(05:01):
because we've now politicized public health and there's been uncertainty
as far as guidelines, conflicting guidelines, and even the vaccine
landscape there's confusion because there's you know, issues of vaccine
licensure and eligibility criteria, and so people aren't necessarily out
(05:21):
there looking or getting the vaccine, and even when they
go look for it, a lot of places don't have
it yet, so you know, lots of problems they're adding
up to a potential for a worse outcome. But right
now it's under control and it is similar and actually
a little bit better than last year's.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Are we ever going to see people dying like we
did see during the course of the first stages of COVID.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
I hope not, because that was bad. I mean, that
was really bad. When we're talking about in Italy, especially
when I first started, the death rates of a thirty percent,
you know, and even here where we were seeing death
rates ten to twelve percent. Once it moved over to
the United States, that was awful. We're still seeing people
die from COVID, but a lot of them are you know,
(06:10):
advanced in age and have comorbid conditions like things like
emphysema or copd asthma. So you know, we're still seeing it,
but nowhere near the level of the first few days,
first days of this pandemic.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
And the vaccine for example, I'm a big fan of vaccinations,
as you know.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
When my kids, you know we're young, gave them the MMR.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Shots certainly distemper parvo shots GUARDASIL when they were four
years old. I mean, I did everything for the kids,
and I'm a big fan of doing myself. Our COVID
vaccinations Number one available easily. I know you said they're
difficult to get to where do we get them? And
(06:57):
number two do you suggest that people do get them
regularly like you suggest flu shots should be gotten every year?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah, I mean I tend to follow the expert guidelines
on these things, and to me the expert this point,
because RK has fired all the experts from the CDC's
Vaccine Advisory Committee, I would go with the American Academy
of Pediatric recommendations. I mean, they really Again, doctors don't
(07:28):
make money off these recommendations, and they don't make money
off giving the vaccines. They're trying to do the best
thing for children. They're recommending infants and children ages six
to twenty three months get the vaccine because they are
at a higher risk for having bad outcomes, and then
children too and older they should at least be offered
the vaccine, and then the parents or guardians can decide
(07:49):
on that after a conversation with them, especially if they're
in a high risk household where if they get it
and they give it to like a grandparent, they can
kill the grandparent. So, you know, I think that that
following those guidelines is very reasonable and the same thing
American in College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists are recommending that
people receive a booster or an updated vaccine at any
(08:13):
time during the pregnancy or if they're planning to become pregnant.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Let me ask you, is it like the flu.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Now the COVID vaccine where it mutates every year and
they have to guess which way it's going to go.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Yeah, but it's moving a little slower, so you know,
we're still in Omicron's season here. That's what this current
outbreak is Omicron. So if you've had the Omicron vaccine,
you probably have some partial immunity. Now the sub variant
is called stratus omicron stratus, and so yes, are they
modifying a vaccine for that, absolutely, and then it has
(08:47):
to get relicensed, so you probably do. If you got
an omicron vaccine in the past, you probably do still
have some immunity to it. But the booster for especially
high risk people would be advisable, right.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Jim as always, thanks, are you going to get vaccinated?
By the way, do you have to get vaccinated? I
know what you talked about when you were in the er.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Well, again, this is people are going to think this
is this is hypocritical, but I think it's you know,
you make a personal decision based on your experience. So
I've had I've had COVID eight times, I've had four vaccines.
So I talked to it and infections these guys and
he said, look, these don't seem to work for you.
I don't think there's any point in you getting them anymore.
So I still get the flu vaccine, but the COVID
(09:30):
vaccine doesn't seem to be helping me.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Oh good, So we'll follow your advice and no one
gets it. That's fair, Jim, Thank you, we'll talk again,
all right, Take care of
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