Due to a flesh-eating infection, a woman who underwent a routine procedure at an East Midlands Hospital in the United Kingdom lost "half her left bum cheek."
According to Derbyshire Live, Lesley Mangnall visited the Royal Derby Hospital on Good Friday due to pain from what was believed to be an abscess.
The 45-year-old patient from Alvaston in Derby was then taken to a recovery unit. She discovered a vast, red lump that had shifted its location overnight and was close to the abscess.
When Mangnall awoke, she was informed of the severity of the problem and that she required immediate surgery.
Medical professionals informed Mangnall that necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating condition, had forced the removal of a significant piece of her left buttock.
"I was told by the nurse not to Google it, but of course that makes you want to, I realized how lucky I had been," the patient said per Nottingham Post.
Woman Loses Half Her Butt Cheek Due to Deadly Flesh-Eating Disease
According to the Lee Sparks Foundation, necrotizing fasciitis is so severe that the fatality rate is still between 30 and 50 percent, even with the finest care. Due to the infection's significant tissue destruction, survivors may require an amputation.
"It is not common, and that is why people haven't heard about it as much as they should. People have had chunks of their legs removed, or even had limbs amputated because of this infection," Lesley noted per Wales Online.
Usually, a wound allows the bacterium that causes necrotizing fasciitis to enter the host's body.
According to Mangnall, she was still taking morphine following the initial procedure. Although the infection was supposed to hurt, she didn't notice it as much.
Mangnall has barely ended her rehabilitation after having surgery to remove the diseased region at the end of April, and the fatal virus still affects her.
She was discharged from the hospital with an open wound, and for the next three months, the area needed to be covered and bandaged.
A surgeon (L) and an assistant surgeon performed open-heart surgery in a cardiac surgery unit at the CHU Angers teaching hospital in Angers, western France, on October 24, 2013. The Angers hospital employs 6,000 people, including 980 doctors.
Necrotizing Fasciitis Explained
Lesley wants to increase awareness of the fatal bacterial condition since she is one of the 500 individuals in the UK who contract necrotizing fasciitis each year.
She encourages people to look into the Lee Sparks Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded to assist those who have contracted the condition and spread awareness of its symptoms.
The infection, which affects tissue underneath the skin, can make a minimal injury potentially fatal if not treated right once.
Toxins released by the bacteria harm adjacent tissue.
Before the virus spreads throughout the body, producing nausea and swelling in the afflicted regions, BBC News reported that the early flu-like symptoms could swiftly progress to vomiting and disorientation.
It can develop fast and result in catastrophic issues like organ failure and blood poisoning (sepsis).
Experts seek to increase awareness of necrotizing fasciitis, believing that an early diagnosis can mean the difference between life and death.
A person has to have the appropriate aggressive insect sitting outside their body, ready to enter, and then have a method to enter the body, such as a scratch, for necrotizing fasciitis to develop.
According to experts, the "main feature" on your skin is the "really bad, agonizing pain, out of proportion to what you can see" of necrotizing fasciitis.
This is due to the bug's iceberg-like location deep into the tissue.
When patients fail to respond to more potent painkillers, medical professionals should think this could be necrotizing fasciitis" and administer the appropriate antibiotics.
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