A new mum said she wants to bring attention to a disease that eats flesh because it almost killed her.
Charleigh Chatterton, who is 27 years old, had her daughter Alessia on April 22 in Colchester. There were no problems with the birth.
But after six days, she had to be taken back to the hospital because she had a rash on her stomach.
Doctors told the finance manager’s family that she had necrotizing fasciitis and that she might not make it.
“The doctors told me I didn’t have a good chance of living. She said, “I think I found out just in time.”
Miss Chatterton, who was from Harwich, Essex, had a rash that was “as hot to touch as a boiled kettle” and serious flu symptoms.
Her boyfriend, Liam Boyne, called the nurses at the Colchester hospital, and they told her to go in and get checked out.
Doctors did a lot of tests that all came back fine, but her condition was getting worse quickly, and she was having trouble staying awake.
After a scan showed that there were gas bubbles under her skin, they thought it might be necrotizing fasciitis. Doctors said she needed surgery right away to remove a lot of dead tissue and stop the spread of the bacteria that eats flesh.
Miss Chatterton was put to sleep for three days. When she woke up, she had two big cuts on her stomach that had to be left open for six days so her body could heal until a hoover pump could be put in.
Necrotizing fasciitis is a medical and surgical problem that doesn’t happen very often, but does happen every year to about 500 people in the UK.
The infection affects the tissue under the skin, and if it isn’t handled quickly, it can turn a small wound into one that could kill you.
Early flu-like symptoms can quickly turn into a rash, vomiting, and swelling of the affected areas before the illness spreads to the rest of the body and makes you feel dizzy and confused.
It can get worse very quickly and cause major problems, like sepsis and organ failure.