A woman feels “lucky to be alive” after a flesh-eating bug left her with a 20cm deep wound on her bottom.
Tracy De Jongh Eglin says her bum now looks like “a peach with a huge bite taken out of it'”. She began displaying flu-like symptoms on January 20 and was rushed to hospital five days later after going into septic shock and collapsing.
Medics identified a large black mass on her left buttock and Tracy was diagnosed with the life-threatening bacterial infection, necrotising fasciitis.
The mum-of-two spent nine days in a coma and underwent three surgeries. Her family was told their loved one had just a 10 percent chance of survival, but miraculously she pulled through.
Tracy, 59, is now home after spending three months in hospital and at a rehabilitation centre. But she has to use a colostomy bag and is missing half her bottom.
What caused the necrotising fasciitis remains unknown, but doctors have told Tracy it could have been something as simple as an ingrown hair or a spot.
The former events manager, originally from Fife in Scotland, said: “My family were told to prepare for the worst – they didn’t think I’d make it.
“It took three surgeries to remove all of the infected tissue and muscle. I spent nine days in a coma, and when I finally came to, I was incredibly disorientated and kept hallucinating.”
She explained how she woke up with a catheter, a stoma and the 20cm deep wound. It took two hours everyday for nurses to change her bandages and clean her wounds.
Tracy said: “It’s been so traumatic and changed my life forever. I’ve lost five stone and had to learn to walk again.
“Even now, I still can’t sit down and have to take a special pillow out with me wherever I go. My bottom looks like a peach that someone has taken a huge bite out of on one side.”
Tracy, who lives in the Netherlands, had thought she had “a severe case of flu”. But her husband, Aldrik, 65, grew concerned at his wife’s condition when she began sweating profusely and struggled to walk.
She was blue lighted to Gelderland Valley Hospital where she was diagnosed with the infection. Tracy said: “My husband had to drive behind the ambulance, not knowing whether I’d come out of it alive.”
During the time she spent in a coma, Tracy’s doctors occasionally brought her round for monitoring, at which points she said they discovered her “Scottish temperament”.
When she finally woke up, she suffered extreme hallucinations and even temporarily forgot how to speak Dutch. She said: “I thought I was a teenager again. I forgot how to speak Dutch and I was convinced that I was 17 and staying in a five-star hotel.
“I remember thinking that my dad – who passed away when I was 45 – had come to visit me, and he told me that it wasn’t time for me to join him yet.”
Tracy’s catheter was eventually removed after eight months, but she will need a colostomy bag for the rest of her life.
After six weeks in hospital, she was moved to a rehabilitation centre where she spent nearly seven weeks weeks receiving physiotherapy, psychotherapy, speech and occupational therapy.
Tracy said: “I was left completely broken and had to rebuild my life. I was so weak. My voice changed and I had to learn how to walk again.
“Even now, I have to walk with a stick, and I still sometimes struggle to find the right words. The physical recovery has been incredibly painful, but mentally I’ve struggled the most. It’s been so traumatic – not just for me, but my family too.”
Despite the trauma, Tracy says her ordeal has changed her outlook on life – and her relationship with her family – for the better.
She said: “I am so grateful to be alive and to have the support of my amazing. The only good thing to come from all of this, is that I feel closer to my husband than ever before. It’s like we’ve fallen in love all over again – our relationship has improved immeasurably.”
Tracy continued: “Necrotising fasciitis is a dreadful illness which has one aim, to destroy as much tissue as possible, thereby destroying lives.
“Listen to your body and seek medical attention if a bad case of flu seems to turn into something else. Without the quick thinking of my husband and the speed of the doctors and ambulance service, I would not be here.”
