Originally Posted by Grapesoda

http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-204_162-...=re1.galleries

This photo supplied by the Gaylord family taken July 11, 2012, at a hospital in Bend, Ore., shows the blackened hand of Paul Gaylord as he recovers from the bubonic plague, commonly known as the "black death."


Gaylord contracted the disease when he tried to pull a mouse out of the mouth of his cat, Charlie, because it was choking on the rodent.

The disease, a version of the medieval scourge that wiped out at least a third of Europe, took away the 59-year-old welder's fingertips, toes and his ability to make a living. He faces an arduous recovery surrounded by constant reminders of his misery: The infected cat died, and the trailer he's living in has a mouse problem.