Mum loses ‘half her face’ in flesh eating bug attack
AMUM-OF-FIVE who lost “half of her face” from contracting a flesheating bug after falling down a flight of stairs is hoping to raise awareness of the deadly disease.
Lynn McKinley, from Milton, cut her eyebrow open after tumbling down her staircase at the beginning of March.
Due to fears of Covid, the 45-yearold avoided making a trip to hospital until she began to notice signs of infection caused by the cut.
Just five weeks later, she has been left with only her jawline and ear on the left side of her face.
Lynn’s daughter, Tammy, said: “She was concerned about Covid and left it. But just two days later it started to swell up.
“She eventually went to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary to get it checked out. They ended up transferring her over to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital to see a specialist.
“They put her through an x-ray and then a CT scan. They began to get suspicions that it could be necrotising fasciitis.”
After the results came back, it was clear that Lynn was suffering from necrotising fasciitis – which is a rare but serious bacterial infection that affects the tissue beneath the skin and surrounding muscles and organs.
It is often referred to as the “flesh-eating disease”, although the bacteria that cause it do not “eat” flesh, but release toxins that damage nearby tissue.
Tammy, 26, continued: “She was told that she was going straight into surgery and that she could lose her left eye, depending on the level of the condition that was already there.
“After further inspection, they took her into emergency surgery and found that the disease was spreading as fast and two to three centimetres per hour.”
After realising how fast the disease was spreading, surgeons had to make the speedy decision to remove Lynn’s eye, scalp and tissue on the left side of her face.
“They could see some damage already on her eye and on her eyebrow but the surgery revealed the extent of the damage to the left side of her face,” Tammy said.
“After the surgery, she took really unwell and was told that she would only have a 30 to 40% chance of survival. She was put on six different types of antibiotics and was taken into ICU where she was put into a coma.”
The week before Lynn was discharged, surgeons worked for nine hours to give her a skin graft, which her daughters say was the hardest curve for her to recover from.
Lynn, who is also grieving the recent loss of her mother, finally returned home to her kids and grandchildren last week after spending one month in hospital.
Tammy said: “Physically, she is doing really well and emotionally, she is doing better than we thought she would be. At this moment in time, we are waiting on a surgery date to come through for her to get a prosthetic eye.
“We thought that after mum woke up from the coma she wouldn’t want to be here.
“After her coma, we told her everything that had happened and she took it so well. She just got on with it and is happy to be here with her family.
“Even the doctors were surprised that it had all happened and spread so fast.
“To add to everything, mum is also going through the grieving of losing her mum. She is having to come to terms with the fact she has lost her mum, half her face and will be blind in one eye.”
Now, her daughters are warning people to get open wounds and cuts checked out as the outcome could be “life-changing”.
Lynn’s other daughter, Caitlyn, said: “The disease itself isn’t something that people know about. It just shows that if you get a cut, just get it checked out – even if you aren’t concerned about it – it could change your life.
“Mum has come out without half of her face. It could end up being life-changing. “We ourselves didn’t think much of the cut because it didn’t look like it needed medical attention, but it ended up being a disease that can spread in a matter of hours.” The girls have launched a GoFundMe page where they are hoping to raise cash to get their mum back “to some sort of normality”. Any funds raised will go towards cosmetic procedures for Lynn to become “comfortable enough to face the public and continue to live her life”.
Caitlyn, 22, said: “NHS will do most of the work but there are some things that we want to do for mum. They will provide her with the lifesaving treatment that will reconstruct her face.
“We want to raise funds to cover any cosmetic procedures. She will need a new set of teeth and lip enhancement.
“We want to do this to give her a lift and bring her back.
“She keeps reminding herself that she is so lucky to be here.”
Donate to the online fundraiser by visiting uk.gofundme.com/f/Facial-Necrotising-fasciitis