Flesh eating disease began as strep throat

Wanna see what it can do?

Lots of true stories of how normal people doing normal things suddenly get it and how it attacks them.

Incredible and graphic....

[link to www.nnff.org]

Marcy Nathlich´s Survivor Story


On October 13th 2004, I left for work in great pain. A few days earlier I had fallen in the bath tub and injured my right hip, and was bruised terribly. Me being the independent, stubborn person I am, suffered through the pain not wanting to go to the doctor. The last thing I remember about that morning was pulling out of the garage....the rest, I am telling from information given to me by friends.

Around 9:30 that morning I called my boss at work and told him I was lost. He asked where I was and I responded that I was behind a blue van and hung up the phone. No one knew where I was and I didn´t answer my cell phone. I drove around for hours, finally stopping 30 miles north of my home in a small town named Anna. Luckily, I stopped in front of a housing development office, and a man came out because he saw my head bobbing and my car lurching forward. He took my cell phone, and spoke with 911 and gave them my location. A few moments later I was taken to the hospital by ambulance.

After arriving at the hospital, they rushed me to ICU where I was examined by the physician. He felt my thigh and said it felt like popcorn. They took an x-ray and saw several air pockets. He almost immediately came out and told my fiance that I was not going to live and that he needed to call my family and have them come down from Omaha. He broke down...he had only met my parents once, but he called and spoke with my dad. My family was all there the very next day. They advised that I had contracted necrotizing fasciitis, that it had eaten its way through my upper right thigh..and they were worried about organ failure. They scheduled me for surgery and put me into a drug induced coma....they pumped my stomach...put me on a respirator...put a main line in my chest and pumped me full of antibiotics. I was taken to surgery where they made several deep cuts into my leg.

In all, I had 12 surgeries.

After 19 days, they woke me up and took me off the respirator. I woke up not knowing where I was, what was going on. I was in a great deal of discomfort, and I looked down at my leg. It was covered in a black spongey type of material, and it was attached to a machine which appeared to be sucking liquid out of my leg. The doctors came in and explained everything. The machine attached to my leg was a KCI Wound Vac...this is what ended up saving my life and my limb. I stayed in ICU for 5 additional days before they moved me to a regular room, where I continued to be attached to the wound vac. Every other day they would do dressing changes which were EXTREMELY painful as they had sponge packed tight into the tunnels they had made in my leg. When they pulled them out, it felt like they were holding a match up to my skin.

I still had not attempted to walk, and could not move my leg. Physical therapy came down and forced me out of bed...and I walked for the first time. It was rough...I had almost no muscle in my right leg, so my foot dragged behind me as I walked down the hall, but I was doing it!! Every day I got better, walking further and further. The doctors were amazed at my recovery. I had not only survived one of the worst cases they had seen, but I had also kept my limb and was WALKING!

They kept me in the hospital until November 23, 2004. Forty LONG days. My mom, who had been here the entire time, was taught how to do dressing changes. I have a large skinless wound that will eventually require a skin graft, and several other wounds which will need to be sewn shut. I was so ready to go home.

Now that I am home, the pain is bad, but I´m so happy to have my life and my leg. I had such wonderful doctors, and luckily they knew what was wrong with me the moment I was taken in. I have to go through several follow up appointments, and more surgeries, but I´m ready for it!! Reading all these stories has given me the hope and support I have needed. I hope my story helps as well.

UPDATE January 6, 2005:
After several follow up visits to my plastic surgeon, he has decided that my wounds are going to close themselves and I will not need skin grafts!!! I was so excited to hear this! I am doing VERY well..the pain lessens with every day..I am walking almost normal, no need for my quad cain any more! Dave and I plan on getting married the end of April. Life does indeed go on! Thank you everyone, for all of your emails. This site has helped me more than anything else!

Molly Williams´ Survivor Story


My dreadful experience happed December 8, 1999 following a minor oral surgery to remove excess bone growth on my upper right gum. During this surgery the surgeon cut the inside tissue of my right cheek. I have a small mouth and accidental cuts are common during surgery. My daughter, Nanette, picked me up following the morning surgery. While looking into my mouth she noted the cut and told me it was near my lip. I wasn´t concerned, I was feeling great. We went shopping for an hour, I had some soup for lunch. Then suddenly I felt hot, miserable, and ached. I went home to bed.

The cervicofacial necrotizing fasciitis had began. I took my pain medication, it wasn´t helping. My husband became real concerned with the amount of swelling we were seeing, the pain I was in, and he called the Doctor. He recommend I double up on the pain medication. We did this, it didn´t help.

All I can share with you is that this pain presents itself like no other, worse than the pain of childbirth.

Dec. 9th, early morning I went by ambulance to St. Joseph´s Hospital emergency room. They were very caring, but advised me to see my doctor the next morning. During the time I was there, my face had swollen more and spread to my left eye, my tissue was getting pinker. The attending physician had called my doctor, unfortunately, he told him I should be in pain, since I had dental surgery. I begged them to let me stay. They sent me home with more narcotics to take to ease the pain.

Dec. 10th I went to see the dental doctor. He examined my mouth and saw the infection was not due to the corrective surgery and sent me to our near by hospital here in Kitsap County. The CT scan of my face, neck and upper chest showed soft tissue swelling in the SQ fat and along the external muscle bellies. Later that night the doctor noted necrotic tissue.

Still no debriding of my face was started. My husband could see how my face was so discolored and blisters were appearing. I looked terrible. I told him he better take a picture of me for my boss, Don. I worked for him as his transportation supervisor and he needed me there every day.

Thank goodness for that picture and the ones he took daily as my condition worsened.

This form of NF has a 60% mortality rate.

On Dec. 13th the doctors assessment became "necrotizing fasciitis". I had black skin on my upper lip, my right cheek and lower left lip. My right eye was so swollen it had split open, my left eye so bad I could barely see. I looked so swollen around my face I was becoming un-recognize able. I was put into the ICU, the nurses started coming in with masks on, my room was quarentined. I was scared to death. The doctor cut off the black tissue over my eye, removing my eyelid and some tissue on my lip. Not nearly what needed to be done. I was beet red down my chest by this time.

Dec. 15th...I should have died by now, I am a miracle case. On this day I was finally transferred to Harborview medical center. After a quick examination the Surgeon told my husband," I am sorry it has come to this, your wife may die. This team of medical staff saved my life. But, I was debrided from my right eye, my entire cheek, some of my nose, half of my right upper and lower lip, down my chest to 1/4 inch of my sternum. If this infection, which was progressing fast, would of entered my sternum I would have died.

My recovery took many surgeries. I was in the ICU fighting for my life. They needed to take muscle and skin from my body to attempt to fill my cheek area with. My right trapezius muscle had been debrided, gone. So they then cut me open from the top of my back right side trapezius down to my lower dorsi muscle, only to find that the veins would not match up. That was sewn up. They then went to my back left side and removed my entire trapezius, this was attached to my face. It lasted two days and died. More debriding. They attached my intercostal muscle from under my right breast and brought it up my neck to operate that movement. It worked. The next attempt of a flap attachment was removing my right side stomach muscle, and attaching it to my face. It also failed, but I had a right side tummy tuck. All through out this my surgeon, Dr. Stanley was marvelous. Daily he saw me and encouraged me. After each surgery he was there beside me. But still my face was skinned to the bone. Tissue was attempting to grow in.

We found success by removing half of my rear scalp and pulling it with its blood supply attached over my right ear onto my cheek. For five months I looked terrible. You could see the hair from the back of my head growing on the face and at that time nothing could be done about it. This procedure worked. I had seven large skin grafts taken from my legs to cover the other open areas. Having the area where skin grafts are taken from is terribly painful while it heals. I have had 27 surgeries, with this Dr. Stanley. He saved my life, he never gave up on me. I had a trach put in early on and was stomach fed for 11 months. I was off work for a year and four months. The school district held my job for me. I am grateful to them also, it gave me drive to heal and survive this ordeal. I worked for three years and have now retired. The constant need to take nerve and pain medicine, plus do my job well to keep kids safe, really took my energy away. By retiring I now have time to concentrate on me, on getting my endurance back, on renewing friendships I didn´t have time for. Spending time with my grandchildren and husband, and be ever thankful for the prayers that were said for me, from my bus drivers, friends and many church families. Thank you God for being with me and helping me to survive and be my regular positive self through all of this.

It is unfortunate that emergency room doctors and many physicians have trouble identifying this disease. I have a chronicle of early picture I would gladly e-mail to any physicians the pictures that my husband took. It would help them to see the early stages and learn from my experience.

Beverly Cooper´s Survivor Story


I´m a survivor of NF. I contacted it August 2003, don´t know how. I had a small pimple in the bend of my leg, and it started swelling. It got more painful all the time. I was in Louisville at a wake for a cousin. That night it bothered me all night long. By morning I was sick and as the day progressed it got worse. The next morning we came home. This was on a Friday and the doctors were gone home by this time. As the week-end passed I got more sick. On Monday I went to the doctor. He said I had a infection and put me on Ampicillin and pain pills and lanced the place, told me to come back every day. That went on all week. More pain and getting sicker all the time. On Sunday night I was in a semi-coma, my husband came home from work and took one look at my stomach and called the doctor right away he had to almost carry me to the truck to get me to the doctor. The doctor took one look and told me I needed surgery right away. They took me by ambulance to the hospital. Thank God I got doctors that knew what they were dealing with. The doctor did a wide debridement, he took out 27 lbs. of tissue from my stomach and all the tissue from my labia. He told my husband to call in all my family because he didn´t think I would make it through the night. But I did, he had to do more surgery and it kept growing. He said to live I needed a hyperbaric chamber, but the hospital didn´t have one they had a hard time finding one they finally found one in Louisville, because I was on life support. They air-vac me there . It took 3 trips to the chamber to save my life. I went in the hospital on August 18 and came home on September 18. But my wounds had to be dressed 3 times a day for 4 more months. They taught my husband to do them. Thank God for him and Dr. Mayo I am alive because of them and all the health care people. I´m still having some problems but they get better all the time.

Smokers are well protected because the nicotine in tobacco smoke kills off all germs in the throat and nasal cavities.

It´s a form of leprosy.

Is this disease contagious?

NWO two-edged sword. On the one hand they´re killing our immune systems with poisons in the air, water, food, cosmetics, etc., and on the other hand they introduce these lab-induced bacteria to finish us off.

The NWO can´t stop you from growing garlic in your garden (yet!). Might be just the thing to save your life....

EE, yes it´s contagious. Usually they try to quarantine the patient, but that becomes difficult and expensive.

This is epidemic in the UK because they ignored the potential consequences. The US is heading in the same direction.

They´ll tell you it´s a low risk, but any open wound, break in the skin, tissue damage - can act as a breeding ground once contamination turns into infection.

We´ve had a couple cases here in Hawaii. Including a lady that lives about three blocks down the street from me and works at the local grocery store.

I did a little research after finding out that it was in my neighborhood. Can´t remember where I read it but, at least one doctor thinks that it is related to antibiotic use.

We live with flesh eating staph daily here in the tropics but this is much, much worse.

Found it - my mistake, it´s from taking anti-inflammatroy drugs while being infected with beta strep. (I knew it had to do with taking some kind of medication.)

[link to www.drmirkin.com]

FLESH EATING BACTERIA

Gabe Mirkin, M.D.

Over the last several years, you´ve heard stories about a flesh-eating bacteria that can dissolve muscles and skin, leading to amputations and even death. This supposedly new disease may be caused by taking non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofin, aspirin, Motrin and Tolectin when you are infected with a beta strep germ (1). A report in the New Zealand Medical Journal shows that five of seven cases of flesh-eating bacteria occurred in people who took these pain medicines.

When you get an infection, certain white blood cells called macrophages produce a chemical called tumor necrosis factor, which travels to your brain and causes your body to produce prostaglandins that cause fever and shut off tumor necrosis factor. Aspirin and nonsteroidal anti inflammatory drugs block the production of prostaglandins, causing the white blood cells to keep on producing tumor necrosis factor. This can allow the bacteria to spread through the body, producing toxins which dissolve tissue and even cause shock and death.

There are progressive warning signals that tell you that you could have this type of infection. First, you develop a sore throat or you cut or bruise your skin or stick yourself with a thorn or splinter. Usually the pain of a throat infection or a wound lessens with time. Progressively increasing severe pain is a signal that you have a serious infection. Contact a doctor immediately if you develop severe pain, a fever, a red streak starts to extend toward your heart, or your lymph nodes start to swell and hurt.

The beta strep bacteria do not dissolve flesh. They produce toxins that dissolve flesh, so once you have this condition, antibiotics may get rid of the bacteria, but they do not get rid of the toxins that cause the damage. Infections with beta strep bacteria can be cured readily if you take antibiotics early enough and avoid taking aspirin or any pain medications. Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets, died of a beta strep infection because he did not seek treatment early enough.

1) New Zealand Medical Journal March, 1995.

2) Science News October 7, 1995.

3) CO Brantigan, J Senkowsky. Group A beta hemolytic streptococcal necrotizing fascitis. Source Wounds - A Compendium of Clinical Research and Practice 7: 2 (MAR-APR 1995):62-68.

Emerald-

If you are very curious - go to the site I posted earlier (2nd post). It is the national group for people that have had it.

Absolutely will blow you away. The stories are so incredibel and heart wrenching - I can´t even read them all....

From what I gather - it is just a staph virus that gets into your system somehow and then it goes to town.

People have gotten it from swimming in lakes - bumps and bruises in sports - from operations - from dental work, etc... some never know where they got it from.

It hits fast and like a ton of bricks - some people go through 20+ surgeries to stop it. Amputations, removal of pounds of flesh to beat it... Drug-induced comas - some people are out of it for weeks -

Really incredible....

Last night there was a show called "Ripleys Believe it or Not" with an episode about a man who lost his face to a fungus called Mercor-called worse even than the flesh eating virus.

Grim stuff, this man had just a hole from his eyebrows to his upper lip. No eyes, nose just an
empty hole that went back for about two inches into his skull.

He was fitted with a flesh colored prosthesis, and with sunglasses could almost pass for normal.

His wife was very sweet and pretty and she was sticking by him through it all. What a woman.

Thx for the link. This article caught my eye since it is the closest hospital to where my family lives. I had heard that this hospital had previous cases of antibiotic-resistant staph infections that people had caught at the hospital while being treated. So just wondering if the strep is something that could be "caught" at the hospital as well. Is this sort of thing prevelent in other places too? I have read recently that death due to hospital was one of the main causes of death in the U.S. nowadays.

True Story:

I had the flesh-eating virus in my mouth...the oral version is called ANUG...Acute, Neco, ?, Gingival.

I could taste rotting flesh in my mouth. Massive oral itching.

My dentist said it was the second case in his 30 year career, as he carved 2mm of gum out of my mouth; admittedly consulting a textbook to brush up -I know, shady pun - the night before!

Why? Standard dentist conspiracy...

Not brushing my teeth.

no kidding. i like your name l.m.
this thing sounds freakin horrifying, and un-natural, no doubt something they have been jacking with.

double edge sword..i have morgellons and we never get infections cause the nanobots eat bacteria, nothing can survive the little monsters. well, in morgellon hell, finally here is a little silver lining, i never have to fear mutant flesh eating bacteria.

JEEBUS!!! this is NOT a good thing to read if you are even a little bit of a hypochondriac.

the premier of quebec lost his leg to this in the 90's. it was big news up in canada.

I worked in a hospital in the mid 90's we had a lady that had a flesh eating disease. It was on her chest and it got to her bones. They had to cut 1/2 of her rib cage away. They put in a clear plastic to hold everything together.
You could see her heart beating and everything.

A friend of mines son [8yo] is recovering from this stuff now. Called MRSA and people are in for a real shock as this disease is killing a lot more people in the USA than HIV/AIDS...

Serious stuff here and if you do not get it treated right away, you are as good as dead.

They can;t kill it, they have to cut all infected areas out of your body then hope that any remaining portions of the disease go into the gauze they pack in the wound. My friends son had it in the abdomen and the doctors stated that if he had not come in that day, he would have died more than likely the next day. They had to cut an area the size of a quarter and about two inches in to the abdomen at this time. That is how fast this stuff spread as there were no signs until he told his dad that his stomach really hurt...

Oh shit I get strep like twice a year.

It most certainly is related.

Here is the skinny. Micro evolution is a very REAL thing. What has happened is that we bombard these things with our antibiotics they eventually developed an immunity. Bacteria can have several thousand generations in a single day. The rise of diversity is staggering.

It's a MASSIVE problem as these bugs are growing and mutating in all kinds of nasty ways and our 'silver bullets' are now desert to these bugs.

The NWO always tried to create something, but this is something that has come from nature... And it's not good.

Just check how many hospitals have suddenly moved into new locations....

This shit is ALL OVER, and it's growing exponentially.

It's a BIG problem.