Plague victim to lose fingers A man who spent a month in intensive care after contracting bubonic plague from a cat bite should be well enough to leave hospital within weeks, his family says. Paul Gaylord, 59, from Oregon, was bitten while trying to take a rodent from the mouth of his cat. As a result of the rare infection - the "Black Death" that ravaged Europe during the Middle Ages - his fingers and some toes turned black and he is expected to lose them.