What do think this person felt like? Fever? Peripheral WBC count? What organism is most likely, and how did it get here? What about antibodies stuck to the bugs? What would this mean if observed in the urine?

This person would have felt like hell; fever, chills, flank pain. They would have had a heck of a peripheral white count and very likely with a marked left shift. The most likely bug is right from the person's own gut flora, specifically Escherichia coli. Antibodies stuck on the surface of a bacteria present in the urine suggest the source of the bacterial infection is in the kidney proper and that the bug recovered is not simply from a lower urinary track infection.
 

Mark Braun, MD braunm@indiana.edu
Copyright 1998, the Trustees of Indiana University