I was left looking like a zombie after a flesh eating disease ate away at my face – don’t make my mistake | The Sun
A WOMAN is urging people to visit their dentist after a flesh eating disease "skinned" her alive.
Meg Urquhart, 49, cancelled a medical appointment last spring when gum pain from an abscess appeared to have subsided.
But in October, the mum from Ontario, Canada, awoke surrounded by paramedics with a "throbbing" pain in her face – after her family had found her unresponsive at home.
After initially refusing, Meg agreed to go to hospital when she realised the left side of her face had ballooned and her eye had sealed shut.
Doctors struggled to diagnose the mum-of-four, who said the pain in her face was "hell" and felt like "a slow death".
But after four weeks of antibiotics and CT scans, the baffled team of medics discovered Meg's abscess had become necrotizing fasciitis – a deadly flesh-eating disease.
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Meg, who was "scared senseless", said the infection in her face had left her looking "half zombie".
Doctors told Meg if she hadn't come to the hospital when she did "she'd be dead".
"At that point, I realised they almost lost me, my entire family almost lost me," the construction worker explained.
Necrotising fasciitis is a rare but serious bacterial infection that affects the tissue beneath the skin; and surrounding muscles and organs.
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It's dubbed a "flesh-eating bug" but the bacteria doesn't actually eat the flesh, it releases toxins that damage the tissues, causing it to rot away.
The bacteria can spread in a matter of hours, even from a minor injury, and is life-threatening if it's not treated early enough.
Meg said it was like the bug "skinned [her] alive" from the inside.
"At hospital they were massaging my head, draining it and forcing [the pus and tissue] out," she explained.
"It was touch and go, they would never give me a date that I could possibly go home – not once," she added.
In January – after a nine week stay in hospital – Meg was finally clear of infection stitched up by a plastic surgeon and allowed home.
But even now, the mum is still suffering from "strange" after-affects from the flesh eating bug, such as fainting.
Meg is now urging people to visit their dentist when in pain, and never avoid a check-up.
"I feel like more people should know about this [condition], because a lot of people avoid the dentist," she explained.
What are the symptoms of necrotising fasciitis?
Symptoms of necrotising fasciitis can develop quickly within hours or over a few days.
At first you may have:
- intense pain or loss of feeling near to a cut or wound – the pain may seem much worse than you would usually expect from a cut or wound
- swelling of the skin around the affected area
- flu-like symptoms, such as a high temperature, headache and tiredness
Later symptoms can include:
- being sick (vomiting) and diarrhoea
- confusion
- black, purple or grey blotches and blisters on the skin (these may be less obvious on black or brown skin)
Source: NHS
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