A cold nearly killed me
A Winter illness cost Alex Lewis his arms, legs and part of his face
Five years ago Alex Lewis was a stay-athome dad looking after his young son, Sam, while his partner, Lucy, ran a pub. When he got a cold in 2013 he dismissed it as ‘man flu’. But in fact it was a life-threatening streptococcal infection that triggered blood poisoning and caused multiple organ failure.
Rare reaction
‘We all carry strep A in our throats,’ explains Alex, 38, who features in this week’s Body Bizarre.
‘But once in a blue moon somebody has a reaction to it that triggers toxic shock and leads to sepsis, one in tens of millions of people – that was me.’
Given just a three-percent chance of pulling through, miraculously he survived, but at a heavy cost. Both his arms and legs were amputated, and the infection had eaten away part of his face.
He was able to come to terms with the loss of limbs knowing he’d be using prostheses, but the change in his facial appearance was tougher to deal with.
‘I had a first skin graft, which caused my mouth to reduce to about the size of a 1p coin,’ he recalls. ‘That was very hard for Sam to understand and he was reluctant to come near me or cuddle me. To lose that connection, albeit briefly, was awful.’
Positive attitude
After facial reconstruction surgery, Alex has his lips tattooed to give them the right colour and is impressed with the results.
‘The difference it’s made from the first surgery to now is incredible,’ says Alex, who is remarkably positive about his ordeal.
‘There are people living with far worse than what I have to endure,’ he explains. ‘And as a family we’re stronger now.’