It begins innocently: with a small abrasion, cuts, burns. It may result in numerous amputations – and this is not the worst-case scenario. I am talking about necrotic fasciitis, caused by the so-called “Body-eating bacteria”. We should be worried about the pain – disproportionately large in relation to the injury.
Chills, fever, nausea, and an upset stomach are not what survivors remember most. They remember the pain the most. – The doctors asked me to rate the pain intensity on a scale of 1 to 10. And it was like 100, then 1000 – recalls Brenda Walker from Alpharetta, Georgia, whose left calf was destroyed six years ago by bacteria that cause necrotizing fasciitis, also called as “body-eating bacteria”. Walker has a comparison. Previously, she survived childbirth without any painkillers, but suffered such torments during the infection that even the maximum allowable dose of morphine did not help to soothe them. Doctors put her in a pharmacological coma for over two weeks, when they performed several surgeries to save her life.
As frightening as these stories are, the pain is actually an important diagnostic clue. Necrotising fasciitis is extremely rare, but its symptoms are so severe and develop so quickly that thankfully even the biggest stoics show up very quickly in the hospital.
Concerns about “body-eating bacteria” have intensified in recent weeks, largely influenced by the fortunes of Aimee Copeland, a University of West Georgia student who probably caught the infection while playing on a riverside rope – a zipline for descents. The rope jumped and Aimee fell to the rocks and then into the water, slitting her leg. Since then, her struggle for life and numerous amputations have continued to attract media attention.
As with many of the victims, Janelle Hansberger’s symptoms also progressed very quickly. In late 2010, she accidentally dropped a computer that fell on her left foot. Within hours, my foot was swollen and at the same time what looked like stomach flu developed. Pain and subsequent symptoms intensified so quickly that the woman reported to the hospital within 24 hours. Eventually, Hansberger, a 37-year-old mother of two little boys, had her left leg amputated below the knee.
– Every year, only one in 400 people in the US are diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, says Dr. Chris Van Beneden, an epidemiologist at the Department of Bacterial Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Various bacteria, the doctor explains, can cause infection, including Klebsiella, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus (Staphylococcus aureus) and Group A Streptococcus (streptococcus). In some cases, patients and doctors never know what was the beginning of the disease. Symptoms include painful red bumps and lumps, bruising-like lesions that grow or turn black rapidly, and skin exudate, according to information from the US National Library of Medicine. Patients may also experience fever, nausea, weakness, chills, dizziness, and dullness. And of course the pain.
“The common denominator in most cases appears to be pain that is disproportionate to the size of the redness or trauma to the skin,” reads an article on the American Academy of Orthotics and Prosthetics website. Or, as Walker puts it more vividly: “It’s the worst pain imaginable.”
Her words are confirmed by 60-year-old Bill Brust from Roswell. – I have never experienced such pain in my life. It’s indescribable, says Brust, who developed the infection after knee surgery in 2001. “I fell off my bike once and broke my arm, but that was nothing compared to that. Robert Vaughn of Cartersville, who is currently battling necrotizing fasciitis, estimates the infection “struck him like a ton of bricks.” The 33-year-old man is in the hospital at the Burns Center. Joseph M. Still in Augusta, Georgia, where Aimee Copeland is also in critical condition.
Vaughn doesn’t know what caused his infection. Apparently it started as a small lump near the groin that had grown from the size of a pea overnight to the size of a grapefruit. “I don’t know where it came from,” Vaughn says, admitting that he initially didn’t want to tell doctors about the lump because of its location. But his wife insisted. Vaughn is grateful that he avoided amputation, but the “what if” thought keeps coming back to him like in a nightmare. – I think about it a lot … What would have happened if it had not been for my wife? And the second thought that never leaves him – “That it never happens to me again,” he admits.
Doctors believe that Copeland was infected with Aeromonas hydrophila, a bacterium that occurs mostly in warm climates and aquatic environments. Patients who commented on this article admit that the Copeland case brought back vivid memories. At the same time, they emphasize that people treated for this condition should be reassured and realize that life is possible after surviving necrotizing fasciitis.
Brust, who lost his knee ligament due to infection, can still ride his bike but has given up skiing. Walker, 43, who attributes the fact that she survived, to doctors and the power of prayer, has finally learned to walk again. Now she can run and play with her three children. And Hansberger, an avid runner before amputation, completed her first triathlon within a year of her 40-day hospitalization in Atlanta. “There are many beneficial effects to all of this,” says Hansberger. – It may sound strange, but I am so grateful for everything I have now and enjoy all I can do with my children. I guess I took it for granted before. Even though the disease changed her life, Walker refuses to live in fear – though she has to fight it when her children suffer scrapes and bruises inevitable during childhood. – I can’t fear every day that someone I love might get sick with it. It is impossible to live like this – he emphasizes.
Text: Katie Leslie