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CAUSES OF DEATH

ADA (EDITH) KUNTZE
born September 8, 1890 in South Greenfield - died March 24, 1912, age 22 years.

Father: Albert Kuntze (1861-1897)
Mother: Bertha Nowasky (1867-1923)

Cause of death: Erysipelas Fasciitis

Erysipelas Fasciitis is a flesh-eating skin infection. Specifically, it is an acute streptococcus bacterial infection of the skin tissue, resulting in inflammation and characteristically extending into the soft tissue component of the connective tissue system that permeates the human body. Patients typically develop symptoms including high fevers, shaking, chills, fatigue, headaches, vomiting, and general illness within 48 hours of the initial infection. The skin lesion enlarges rapidly and has a sharply demarcated raised edge. It appears as a red, swollen, warm, hardened and painful rash, similar in consistency to an orange peel. Occasionally, a red streak extending to the lymph node can be seen.

The infection may occur on any part of the skin including the face, arms, fingers, legs and toes, but it tends to favor the extremities. Fat tissue is most susceptible to infection, and facial areas typically around the eyes, ears, and cheeks.

When Edith entered Kings County Hospital to give birth to a baby girl named Katherine, she was too sick to care for her. Neither mother nor daughter ever left the hospital alive. Four weeks after her birth, baby Katherine died on March 23, and Edith the next day. They are buried together in the same unmarked plot at Evergreens Cemetery with Edith's grandmother Louise Pubanz Nowasky and where her mother Bertha would go when she died in 1923.

Erysipelas Fasciitis is effectively treated with Penicillin. Unfortunately for Edith, Penicillin wasn't discovered until 1928.

Although her death certificate lists Katherine's father as John J. Sullivan, there is no evidence that Edith ever married. Plus, the baby's surname is listed as Kunzer, which we may assume was an error in the spelling of Kuntze.

LEIER/NOWASKY FAMILY WEBPAGE