Man infected with flesh-eating bacteria after being bitten by relative in mass brawl
9 June 2023, 19:23
A man has been infected by a flesh-eating bacteria after a relative bit him during a mass brawl.
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Donnie Adams, of Tampa Bay in Florida, came close to losing his leg after necrotising fasciitis entered the tissue from a bite, when he was trying to break up a fight at a family wedding.
Mr Adams, 52, tried to treat the leg wound himself, but after the pain continued to get worse he went into the hospital to get a tetanus shot and antibiotics.
But there was still no improvement. "By the third day, my leg was very sore. I couldn’t walk, it was very warm and very painful," he told local newspaper WFLA.
He went to A&E, where Dr Fritz Brink recognised that something was seriously wrong.
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Dr Brink said: "I looked at him, and I said to him that I need to take you to the operating room."
Some 70% of the flesh was removed from Mr Adams' thigh.
Dr Brink said the bacteria could have been transmitted by the person who bit Mr Adams.
The doctor added: “There’s a lot of really bad bacteria that live between our teeth in our gums in our mouth."
Mr Adams had to have two operations to have the infected flesh removed from his leg.
He said: “If I would’ve waited … until the next day after that ER second visit, there was a good chance I would’ve lost my leg."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), necrotising fasciitis "is a rare bacterial infection that spreads quickly in the body and can cause death.
"Accurate diagnosis, rapid antibiotic treatment, and prompt surgery are important to stopping this infection.
"It usually enters the body through a break in the skin such as a cut or scrape, burn, insect bite, puncture wound or surgical wound."
