Man fighting flesh-eating disease
A father-of-two says his body is eating him alive and his doctors can’t agree on the cause.
In a short five months, Matthew Ramsay has undergone seven surgeries, including the amputation of four toes, lost the ability to work, dropped 23 kilograms, seen his bond with his children suffer and been unable to share a bed with his partner, Mary.
The 26-year-old has seen a number of doctors but said all of them had diagnosed him with something different.
‘‘I’ve only started getting better since I haven’t been on anything,’’ he said. In January, a tiny sore appeared on Ramsay’s finger but he thought little of it. ‘‘But then it sort of blew up. It swelled right up and had like a black ring around it,’’ he said. ‘‘Then I think it started on my ribs and it sort of just looked like a rash.’’
The Taranaki man continued to break out in sores, which spread across much of his body,
including his torso, face, between his legs and in his nasal passage.
A ‘‘pin hole’’ later appeared on his right foot, and then over time the foot began to swell.
‘‘Then there was this thick pad under my foot which was basically just dead and trying to detach.
‘‘Then one of my toes starting going black and then it affected the two next to it – and then they cut my toes off.’’
Most recently he was diagnosed with autoimmune disease, vasculitis – a term used for a group of rare diseases that have in common the inflammation of blood vessels, which injure the body’s organs.
But he’s not convinced. ‘‘With vasculitis there’s meant to be an anchor in your blood – a way to hook it to one of
the many different types of vasculitis,’’ he said. ‘‘But I don’t have an anchor which leads me to think I don’t have that.’’
Vasculitis can be mild or disabling, or even lead to death. It can occur as a secondary condition to an underlying disease or as a primary illness for which the cause is unknown.
Ramsay has lost faith in medical professionals and is hesitant to treat himself based on the new diagnosis.
He was incorrectly diagnosed with shingles and then lymphoma cancer. The subsequent treatments, including chemotherapy, only aggravated his wounds, he said.
He’s since refused to take any prescribed medications and is instead ‘‘keeping things simple, just eating good and keeping active’’.
Since becoming ill, his life has dramatically changed, he’s tired of the ongoing physical pain, and is worried about what the future has in store for him and his family.
He has recently lodged three complaints with the Taranaki District Health Board (TDHB), with which he was receiving treatment.
His issues include his misdiagnosis, being prescribed and kept on the wrong medication for so long and specific requests not being carried out when undergoing surgeries.
‘‘I’ve missed out on five months of my kids’ life.
‘‘I just want to get back to work, back to normal.’’
A TDHB spokeswoman confirmed Ramsay’s complaints had been received.
She said they were currently being investigated but was unable to publicly discuss individual cases.