On King Saul, Two Missing Mules, and Kingella kingae: The Serendipitous Discovery of a Pediatric Pathogen.

For the first 2 decades following Kingella kingae's initial characterization, this fastidious organism was considered an unusual cause of human infection until a study published in 1992 reported that inoculation of synovial fluid aspirates into blood culture vials improved the recovery of the bacterium. The authors of the original publication report herein the history of the discovery and review the progress made in the research of the organism.