My son’s not scared of me any more... op brings joy to dad ravaged by flesh bug
A FATHER who lost his lips and four limbs to a deadly infection has told how his life has been transformed with a world-first operation.
Alex Lewis, 38, had skin from his shoulder grafted to his mouth after he lost part of his face to the aggressive flesheating infection necrotising fasciitis.
Now he says that even his emotional scars have also started to heal.
Mr Lewis became so unrecognisable, his son Sam – then three – was scared and he would not approach him for a cuddle. The former pub landlord felt that the once-close relationship with the boy had been permanently damaged. But they have now bonded once again.
“Sam was mortified by what had happened visually,” he said. “He was so scared he wouldn’t even come up to me to hug me. He knew it was daddy but he couldn’t work out what was wrong.
He added: “We had this amazing bond before I fell ill – we were inseparable – but it was cut immediately. I never thought I’d get that back. It has taken a long, long time to get back to where we were.”
Mr Lewis is the first person to have surgery to cover both his top and bottoms lips at once with a single surgery.
His horrific ordeal first began in November 2013, when he began to suffer from cold symptoms.
But Mr Lewis thought nothing of it, telling fiancee Lucy Townsend 44, he was probably just experiencing “man-flu”.
As symptoms worsened, he discovered he was battling an infection that left him with a three per cent chance of survival.