Jake Finkbonner: Flesh-Eating Bacteria Arrested After Kateri Tekakwitha Relic

In early 2006, Jake Finkbonner — then five years old and a quarter Lummi — cut his lip on a baseball field in Ferndale, Washington. Within days, Group A Streptococcus necrotizing fasciitis was spreading across his face and head. Surgeons performed daily debridement to remove dead tissue. His prognosis was grave; parents consented to last rites.

A Lummi elder brought a relic — a small piece of Kateri Tekakwitha's bone — and placed it by his bedside. The following day, the medical team observed the infection had stopped spreading. Jake survived and ultimately recovered, though the surgeries left significant facial scarring. He has since met Pope Francis and spoken about his faith.

Pope Benedict XVI approved the miracle on December 19, 2011, declaring it "medically inexplicable." Kateri Tekakwitha was canonized on October 21, 2012, as the first Native American saint. Jake attended the ceremony in Rome.

The complication for clean causal attribution: Jake was receiving the standard of care for necrotizing fasciitis — IV antibiotics and surgical debridement — throughout. Occasionally, this regimen does produce dramatic turnarounds even in severe cases. Without knowing where the treatment response curve stood at the moment of relic placement, separating treatment effect from an extraordinary event is not possible from published sources.