Woman Nearly Dies From Flesh Eating Bug

By Amy Woodfield, 19th June 2012, 07:13

Debbie Woolhead from Leighton Buzzard cut her leg after she tripped and fell on some gravel, two days later a hospital told her she was being eaten by a flesh-eating bacteria.

In two days the bacteria had eaten away at the inside of her left thigh turning the skin purple.

She was rushed into surgery where she had the dead flesh cut away.

Debbie told Heart she was asked to sign a consent form to say that doctors could amputate her leg.

"I was going into surgery when they said we might have to amputate and the first thing I said is can I call my mum because I was scared to death"

She then spent a month recovering in intensive care.

This has all happened in the last 7 months and she says sometimes she feels like it was a dream but when she looks down at her scar she remembers that it did happen.

She has had a skin graft on the wound and is waiting for another operation where they will fold the area in half and stitch through the centre leaving her with one line down the inside of her thigh.

The bacteria that she contracted, Necrotizing Fasciitis, is very rare- Debbie told Heart when she was first taken to hospital doctors told her they had never seen a case of it before.

Despite this, she told Heart she feels lucky because she is still alive, it has killed other people.