Personal experiences

I got a small cut on the side of my index finger – within 36-48hrs I was rushed into hospital with Septicaemia. My finger was taken off to the knuckle, and then several days later I got Necrotising Fasciitis.

I was taken down for further surgery to have my knuckle and flesh taken away. I had further surgery and had my arm cut from the wrist to the elbow down to the muscle, it was left open so the bugs could eat the blood.

Hello my name is Helen, I live in Chesterfield in Derbyshire with my mum and dad and I am seventeen years old. My story begins with my dad having routine day surgery for removal of varicose veins on July 9th 2009 on his right leg. His surgery was very uneventful, we picked him up at about half seven that night and sat down to what I didn’t realise would be the last meal together as a family for five weeks.

Friday morning he began to shiver and shake, was continually feeling hot and cold and just generally wasn’t well. My mum was getting more and more worried about him and called for a doctor, at this point he was rushing to the bathroom to be sick. He spent the majority of that day in bed and I hoped the sickness injection and antibiotics prescribed by the doctor would make him feel better.

The beginning of my story was the day I thought I had piles, I went to the chemist and bought some cream. However this didn’t work. So I went to see my doctor. He said I had a swollen area near my anus and prescribed anti-inflammatory tablets. These didn’t work either.

I moved to New Zealand 6 and a half years ago and almost immediately I started to get boils and spots which didn't occur in the UK (maybe the occasional spot). I saw my GP and received various courses of antibiotics which helped to clear up the infections when they appeared, but didn't stop them reappearing.

The following morning I woke up, got out of bed and felt something warm and brown leakage running down my leg and the smell i have never smelt anything like it before.

My husband rang for a district nurse to visit but they said it could be 3-4pm before anybody could get to me, so I just stayed in bed.

When the nurse arrived she took a look at my wound and the smell and they phoned the hospital, they told them to admit me back into hospital and they phoned for a ambulance.When I got to the hospital they examined me and I was put on iv antibiotics, they then just left me for 6 days with just putting new dressings on as I still had leakage of brown gunge and also started with a red area on my stomach.

I phoned NHS Direct and they suggested if I wasn’t better by morning to go to my doctor. But by 9pm that night I was in too much pain and my husband took me to hospital A&E Department.

I was examined and x-rayed and the doctor explained that there was something wrong but he didn’t know what it was. Different things in my body began to change over the next few hours. By early Thursday morning the top of my right arm began to swell. I saw many different consultants, who were all trying to establish what was wrong. I had an MRI scan after which one consultant explained that I needed to go to theatre.

Later on that day a simple knock on Christopher's elbow started a chain of events, which was to become a living nightmare.

That night Christopher's arm became sore a blister appeared where he had knocked his elbow earlier in the day. Not being the type of person to complain, Christopher just ignored the pain and to bed. We didn't start to get unduly concerned until the Monday lunchtime, by this time his arm was extremely painful and has swollen up alarmingly.

Apparently, the day after my admission, still undiagnosed, I began to go into toxic shock as the toxins began to affect my major organs and my blood pressure dropped to zero. Doctors and other medical staff began to frantically try to get lines into my body and things looked very grim. I was taken down to theatre immediately and my leg cut open and it was then that the diagnosis was changed from DVT to NF. My leg was debrided of infected tissue and I was put in a morphine-induced coma on ICU. Small patches of black tissue on my fingers and trunk were a concern and doctors would only tell my family I had a small chance of survival.

I was admitted to Cardiff Hospital in January 1999 with severe flu-like symptoms. Fortunately, the surgeon was able to diagnose NF and he performed three operations in twelve hours to remove the rotting flesh. However, the bacteria were still very active, my body went into toxic shock and my vital organs began to close down. My family were advised to anticipate the worst.

I fell in love with the most remarkable man in the world and we got married on the 5th June 2004. While on honeymoon I conceived our first child – we were thrilled and overjoyed. After a small complicated pregnancy our daughter Chloe was born by emergency c – section on the 14th April 2005. 2 days after the birth I was discharged from the hospital and within a few days I noticed what was diagnosed as a ‘bruised area’ appeared above my c-section wound.

A few more days passed and a Doctor called to see me. He prescribed antibiotics, which I took immediately, and that night I felt a popping sensation, puss and a foul smelling fluid leaked everywhere. My husband called in the midwife and I was re-admitted into hospital. Immediately on admission I was assessed, assessed and assessed and eventually transferred to high dependency unit. I was put on more antibiotics and fluids and given 24 hr care, but still we did not know what was going on.

It was the busiest weekend of my life – I was being filmed by the BBC on the Saturday. On the Sunday I was at the reopening of my local park where I had been chairing its restoration. On both days I had a slight pain in my groin area - it was hot and I didn't think nothing of it as it wasn't that painful. That evening Sunday 22nd May 2011 I got home and noticed I had got a swelling which was growing at an alarming rate. I rang a friend who advised me to ring the out of hours surgery. The Doctor came round to my house and I was told to get to A&E as soon as possible. I remembering asking if I could just have some antibiotics but he was firm that I needed to get to hospital as soon as I possibly can. In retrospect if I had not obeyed his instructions I would have been dead by now.

The next morning I woke up feeling faint and collapsed, banging my head in the process. This forced my fiancée to call an ambulance instead of driving me herself which probably saved my life. We know now that my blood pressure had dropped to a critical low and my major organs were starting to shut down.

At the hospital, I was, apparently, entirely lucid and coherent although I have no recollection at all. This created considerable confusion among the doctors as all the test results suggested I should be something quite different; unconscious, perhaps, or dead. The decision was taken to send me for emergency surgery on my arm to both identify and treat the infection.

My name is Jennifer I was 47 years old when I contracted NF. I really have no idea how I got the bacteria in my leg. I was in good health no red flags.

I was walking through a city park with my son. I remember I did not have socks on as I sat by the side of the creek worrying about snakes. It was Nov 09 and 72 degrees outside. Beautiful warm day. My pants where wet from the creek and I had scratches on my ankle from the tall grass. When we left and I had a bad feeling. But proceeded to the store, my wet pants dragging on the floor.

First thing in the morning we took the prescription to the chemist who could not read the writing. As our Health Centre is open 24 hours we took the prescription there and showed it to the doctor on duty. He looked at it, guessed and said, “I think that’s what it says” and gave us another prescription which we took back to the chemist which they made up immediately.

Throughout Sunday my condition worsened and come late afternoon we called our Health Centre for another visit from the Doctor. We were asked to go to the Health Centre as no Doctor was available for house calls at that time. I was taken by my family to the Health Centre where I was examined.

8 weeks ago I developed NF as a result of an emergency C Section. I gave birth to my little girl 7 weeks early and little did I know I would spend the first few weeks of her life trying to recover from this horrible disease.

Late in February of 2006, I got an ingrown hair on my bottom. Other than making sitting a bit uncomfortable, I didn't think too much about it.

About a week later, I started to have flu-like symptoms. "Great", I thought, " I've got a sore bottom AND the flu, just my luck!". By Thursday the 2nd of March, I was starting to feel pretty miserable. I went in to work that day, but was sent home at lunchtime by my manager. I went home, crawled into bed and slept. The next day, I wasn't feeling any better, so I decided to go and see the doctor..

In my own mind I queried why if it were only minor why another hospital when we had a very good up to date laboratory. So I paid them a visit and was given the same information as over the phone. Kevin had already gone to Heartland's in Birmingham so I decided to follow.

When I got there and found the ward that Kevin was on, the doctors had already admitted him and were doing tests. After 1½ hours I was allowed in to see the doctor, he told me that Kevin needed a life saving operation - without it he would die, and even with it he could still die.

This story is about our son Liam who's 2. It all started on September 9th 2005, Liam was playing happily in the garden when he let out the most piercing scream. After picking him up Liam was complaining of his left arm hurting I looked for grazes, cuts and bites but couldn’t find any, only a slight swelling around the wrist of his left arm.

Half an hour later it was still hurting and my leg started to stiffen up. I was beginning to be concerned as I could hardly walk. I thought that it could be a deep vein thrombosis. The pain was getting worse and I thought about getting to the hospital, at this point I realised that I would have trouble operating the clutch pedal in my car.

At 2pm I phoned NHS Direct, they told me that if I required an ambulance I must dial 999. So that is what I did and it arrived about 12 mins later. The paramedics asked me a few questions and said that they would be taking me to the A&E Department at Kingsmill in Mansfield. As we travelled the paramedic asked questions and filled in his forms.

I lost my Darling Wife Patricia, to the infection known as “Necrotising Fasciitis” on 1st September 2004 at 02.00am – an infection I had never ever heard of until then.

The story starts on the evening of the 18th August 2004.

We had thought that Patricia’s problem was a case of mild food poisoning initially, following an evening meal of ham salad, but after 4 days there was no improvement, in actual fact a marked deterioration, which started with nausea and diarrhoea and a sense of lethargy.

I had enjoyed perfect health up until April 2004. On April 27th I noticed a slight pain in my right shoulder. I went into work in Cardiff, during the day a colleague performed an ultrasound examination of my shoulder but he found no abnormality.

Later that afternoon I went to Prince Charles hospital in Merthyr Tydfil where I worked as a consultant for an afternoon a week. After work a colleague asked whether I would like to go for a drink with him however by this stage I was in some considerable pain and instead I took myself along to the A&E department. X rays were taken but again no abnormality was seen.

Just before 9 am a friend popped in and we were all getting very concerned. I suggested we call the ward I was on and by good fortune my surgeon was by the phone. "Bring her straight in I will see her now " he said but my husband told him it was impossible to move me, he needed an ambulance. "Try " he said and for one of the first times in my life we thanked God I had a wheelchair and the riser chair and with my friend’s help my husband got me into the car and up to the ward where my surgeon was waiting.

He did not know what was wrong except he could see I was very ill and had me admitted straight away for a CT scan and tests. There was no problem with the wound . I was put on a drip to balance my fluids . The CT scan showed that the kidneys were not damaged but were not functioning.

May 1998 a Saturday, I had just watched the Arsenal clinch the Premiership by beating Everton 4-0, I felt great dancing on the green outside my local pub, my friends have mentioned this as the last thing they remember about me before hearing that I was hospitalised.

That evening I went home and my partner Linda asked me if I would be able to take her to Heathrow airport on the Sunday morning as she was going home to see her family in Ireland, this, I told her was not a problem.

Tony did furniture removals, often from England to France, where we have a house. On 3rd July 2008, he picked up a load from London, destined for Lyon to be delivered on Monday 7th July. He then travelled down with two loaders to Cannes to pick up a return load on Wednesday 9th July.

He sustained a cut on his right arm while loading in London, but this was quite common and did not give any cause for alarm, although I did notice it had happened. He caught the evening ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe on Friday 4th July.

Unfortunately I contracted an infection in the wound after surgery, five days later I was transferred to an Intensive Care Unit where I stayed for 36 days. During this time I was ventilated, I had an external pacemaker fitted and also had kidney dialysis. My whole body was in shut down. Paul was told on several occasions to say goodbye to me.

After my long sleep, I awoke to be told by Paul that I had had my left breast removed and most of my right as I had an infection. I didn't really react to the news, but I would not look at my wounds until several weeks after.

Text Sam and Kelly as feeling even worse than previously, starting to think it may not be 'just a cold' or 'flu' as first thought. Sam comes over and insists on us going to the doctors or hospital. End up agreeing to go to Queen Mary's GP drop-in clinic. See triage nurse who takes me for tests and looks concerned. See GP, they run some tests, Sam 'goes for a cigarette' but can see tears in her eyes, getting worried now.