A British tourist passed away after ‘scraping’ his leg on a piece of wood and going for a swim in the sea in Turkey where he contracted an extremely unusual flesh-eating bacteria.
Doctors were unsuccessful in halting the spread of the infection despite performing two amputations on the leg of Brit Phillip Maile, aged 65.
Phillip, hailing from Worthing, West Sussex, was diagnosed with a fatal skin infection known as necrotising fasciitis while vacationing in Oludeniz, Turkey, with his wife, Vanessa, in September 2022.
His leg began to rapidly change color a few days after swimming in the Mediterranean, even though his wound had been covered with a waterproof bandage and he was advised that seawater would be ‘beneficial’.
The father-of-three was rushed to the hospital on September 9, where doctors worked diligently over the next five weeks to control the infection by cleansing his wound and amputating his leg first above the knee and then at the hip.
Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, Phillip passed away on October 13, 2022. Currently, his 32-year-old daughter Charlotte plans to participate in the Abingdon marathon to raise funds for the Lee Spark NF Foundation, an organization dedicated to raising awareness about Necrotising Fasciitis and supporting individuals affected by it.
She expressed, ‘Certainly, when faced with such circumstances, one clings to the slightest glimmers of hope available and when they disappear, leaving you already at the deepest point of despair, you simply go numb.’
‘I don’t want people to be completely terrified of entering the sea because it’s so incredibly rare, and my dad wouldn’t have wanted that either because he adored swimming. If he had survived all of this, there’s no question he would have been back in the water.’
‘However, the moment you have a small cut or an open wound causing more pain than usual, skip everything else and head to the hospital because it is likely to prevent further spread, which can happen right before your eyes.’
Charlotte mentioned how her father’s cut was ‘minuscule’ but swiftly started causing him discomfort. They took him to the hospital, where they were informed that the infection originated from the sea.
Phillip’s wound became infected with a rare strain of bacteria called Vibrio vulnificus, also known as the flesh-eating bacteria, as it can lead to necrotising fasciitis, a severe infection causing the flesh around an open wound to die.
While Charlotte was on a work assignment in Ireland, her stepmother, Vanessa, contacted her to inform her that her father had been admitted to the local hospital.
Initially, doctors were unable to determine the cause of Phillip’s severe pain, but indications showed that his condition was deteriorating, as his leg was turning blue and black.
On September 9, just a day after receiving the distressing call from her stepmother, Charlotte and her siblings, Sarah, aged 37, and Edward, aged 35, were instructed to fly to Turkey as their father was being urgently transported to the Antalya Lara Anadolu Hospital.
Her stepmother, Vanessa, had arranged for all of them to stay in a serviced apartment just a short walk away from the hospital.
Charlotte explained, ‘From that day onwards, we would walk to and from the hospital twice daily to receive updates from the exceptional doctors.’
In an effort to contain the spread of Phillip’s infection, doctors hurried to cleanse and remove the dead or infected skin, a procedure known as debridement.
Regrettably, the procedure was unsuccessful, and on September 14, Phillip was moved to the intensive care unit after developing sepsis.
‘On that day, we were called into a room to make a decision. They informed us that the only way to attempt to stop the spread was through amputation.’
Later that evening, doctors performed an amputation above Phillip’s knee, after which he was placed on life support.
He went into septic shock following the surgery and needed dialysis to purify his blood, but a glimmer of hope emerged a few days later when Charlotte and her family returned to the hospital.
‘They believed they had succeeded, and we had a couple of days where we felt things were heading in the right direction because even though he was intubated, there was no smell of necrosis,’ shared Charlotte.
However, their hopes were shattered on September 20 when doctors uncovered signs of necrosis upon removing Phillip’s bandages and recommended amputating the remaining portion of his leg.
Despite another attempt to prevent the lethal bacteria from spreading, the operation failed, and after battling for another three weeks, Phillip succumbed on October 13, 2022.
Following the loss of their father, Charlotte’s sister, Sarah, reached out to a charity called the Lee Spark NF Foundation, founded by Dee Cartledge, who lost her son to the same illness in 1999.
Through the foundation, they encountered ‘inspiring individuals,’ some of whom managed to survive the perilous disease, offering Charlotte and her family a sense of solace.
Charlotte intends to run the Abingdon marathon on October 20, 2024, to raise funds for the charity and has already collected over £2,500 on GoFundMe.
She expressed, ‘I am truly overwhelmed by the tremendous support I have received for this endeavor.’
‘My deepest thanks to every single person who has taken the time to not just read the story but also felt compelled to contribute. The foundation truly assisted us during our darkest hour when we believed we were completely isolated.’
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