Woman rushed to the hospital after catching flesh-eating bugs from her garden

Bugs can make your life a living hell. This is what Louise Fawcett, a 58-year-old from Chesterfield, learned the hard way. While she was tending to her flower beds, Louise felt a small cut on her right foot. This small cut turned into a total nightmare, which ended with her being hospitalised in intensive care. Here's what happened.

Louise felt a small cut on her foot

Passionate about gardening, Louise Fawcett spent most of her free time tending to her flower beds, often wearing simple slip-on sandals on her feet. In April 2024, she suddenly felt a cut on her right foot, but didn't think much of it. However, over the next few days, her foot started to swell and became incredibly painful. She explains to the Mirror:

The next morning I noticed the ankle looked like it had a port wine birthmark. It was very purple. I thought it was sepsis.

She was eventually hospitalised, and while she was waiting at the hospital for some tests, a nurse noticed her ankle and recognised the symptoms of a rare flesh-eating bug she had treated in another patient. Louise said:

They took me into a little room. The redness was creeping. It was changing before their eyes. They thought I might lose my life or my leg.

She caught a flesh-eating bug

Louise spent three days in intensive care after surgeons fought to remove the infected part of her foot. Once she was free of the bug, she also got a skin graft from her thigh to replace the one that had been eaten away. In total, Louise had to undergo seven different operations. According to her, the bug could have travelled from the soil of her flowers, into the cut on her foot. She told the Mirror:

I must have got a tiny cut. I think I caught it from the soil.

After her skin graft, Louise was able to go home and she is now learning how to walk again, with the help of a physiotherapist. She explains:

They told me it healed. I was crying with joy. I'm here. I'm glad to be alive.

However, she is still struggling to come to terms with her new appearance, especially after her skin graft. She said:

I have to bathe my foot. I can't look at it. It doesn't feel like my foot. It feels like a mannequins foot.

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Source used:

Mirror: Woman nearly dies after catching flesh-eating bug when tending to flower beds