Flesh-eating bacteria left Cambridgeshire mother in two-week coma

Flesh-eating bacteria left Cambridgeshire mother in two-week coma

Caroline Fonjock, a 45-year-old social worker from near Haverhill, Suffolk, experienced a harrowing battle with necrotising fasciitis, a rare and aggressive flesh-eating bacterial infection. Initially mistaking a painful boil in her upper groin for a routine urinary infection, her condition deteriorated rapidly. Within 36 hours, Caroline was vomiting dark, tar-like substance and slipping in and out of consciousness. Doctors later confirmed the infection was destroying the tissue beneath her skin, threatening her life and necessitating urgent surgical intervention.

Living with type 2 diabetes and a history of infections, Caroline found the speed at which this disease progressed shockingly swift. During the Covid pandemic in April 2021, what started as a small boil soon spread up her leg like a hardened tube. Upon admission to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, consultants informed her she faced immediate surgery and multiple skin grafts, potentially requiring up to a year of hospitalization. Despite initial resistance due to her family responsibilities, Caroline was pressed to undergo the operation, with medics warning her death was certain without it.

The surgery was intense and terrifying, involving the removal of a significant portion of her leg to halt the infection’s spread. When Caroline eventually saw photos of her injured leg, she described the damage as resembling “roadkill.” Remarkably, surgeons managed to save her leg, a recovery she calls “astounding.” After spending two weeks in intensive care in a coma, during which her organs began to fail, Caroline faced a long road ahead. Unable to speak due to a tracheotomy and struggling to communicate via a whiteboard, she had

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