Flesh-eating disease

At one stage they thought I might lose my leg, but I didn’t and I was fortunate because a lot of people do lose their limbs ... or die.’ TREVOR SYKES

quick to diagnose the flesh-eating disease and he was rushed into emergency surgery, his liver and kidneys already starting to fail.

He was kept in an induced coma for eight days, and underwent four more operations to stop the bacteria’s spread. Surgeons cut out chunks of flesh all the way down to the bone, and one stage considered amputation.

‘‘When I came around from the coma, they carried on with the debridement [the removal of dead tissue] even though I was awake – they couldn’t put me under anaesthetic anymore as I had already been under quite a long time.

‘‘That was the worst experience. It was intravenous Panadol [and Tramadol] but you could still feel it every time they hit a nerve. For about two hours they got what they called a spoon ˘and a scalpel to scrape away your flesh. That went on for another two weeks.’’

Finally, nearly a month after he arrived in Dubai, Sykes was flown back to New Zealand.

Then it was straight into Middlemore Hospital in Auckland for another couple of weeks, for more operations and multiple skin grafts. He faces months, if not years, of rehabilitation.

Sykes now wants to raise awareness about the disease.

‘‘The problem with necrotising fasciitis is that most doctors don’t know it.

‘‘You’ll go to a doctor and you’ll have all the symptoms of flu, you’ll have diarrhoea and you’ll have a fever and all kinds of things and maybe six days later they might catch it but by that time it might be too late anyway. It can kill you within six days.’’

On Friday, Sykes got on the exercise bike for the very first time since his release from hospital.

He’s slowly regaining his mobility and considers himself incredibly lucky.

‘‘At one stage they thought I might lose my leg, but I didn’t and I was fortunate because a lot of people do lose their limbs ... or die.’’

Otago University professor of public health Michael Baker said that over the past decade, an average of 83 New Zealanders a year had been hospitalised with necrotising fasciitis. An earlier study revealed a death rate of one in five.

Baker said his research found that for unknown reasons, Maori and Pacific peoples were particularly vulnerable, as were older people, and males compared to females.