Man’s eyes turn bloody, yellow after plunge into pee-filled canal

It was his yellow, bloody eyes that gave his illness away. The previously healthy 18-year-old showed up at an emergency department in the Netherlands after two days of fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. His heart was beating rapidly and his abdomen was a bit tender.

The whites of his eyes were splotched with blood, a sign that blood vessels on the surface of his eyes had burst. Areas that weren't bloodied were a jaundice yellow. Lab tests would later indicate he had acute kidney injury as well as liver dysfunction. But an equally important clue as to what was causing his acute illness was the mention that three weeks prior he had fallen into a canal.

In all, it was a textbook case, according to a report published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine. The man had a rare but severe bout of leptospirosis, which is a bacterial infection marked by fever, jaundice, kidney failure, and hemorrhage. The source: a fall into a canal that was likely tainted with the urine of infected rodents.