WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT Susan Sztybel thought nothing of it when she cut herself on a broken wine glass. Then the infection began, leaving her fearing for her life
After accidentally smashing a wine glass, a grandmother ended up with a tiny cut that she initially thought nothing of.
Little did she know then that she’d end up with a “flesh-eating bug” that would go on to “ravage” her foot, resulting in such a grave infection that she feared she would die.
On the evening of Friday, March 28, “to celebrate the weekend coming in,” Susan Sztybel grabbed two wine glasses from the kitchen cupboard for her and her partner, David Farmer, 69.
Unfortunately, one of the glasses smashed in the process, with a shard causing a small, one-inch scratch on her right foot.
Covering the seemingly minor cut with a plaster, Susan, who works as a carer, headed to bed as usual, without any concerns. Then, 24 hours later, everything changed.
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By this point, mum-of-three Susan began feeling feverish, while the previously innocuous-looking cut began to bleed and ooze pus.
Susan, from Stourport-on-Severn in Worcestershire, recalled: “[On Saturday], I carried on with my shift at work as a living carer. I knew I had done something to my ankle at this point, as it was a bit sore.
“24 hours later, I felt a little bit sick and hot, and then within a couple of hours, I was feeling sick and was sweating and felt really poorly. I didn’t realise the seriousness at this point. I thought I just had a bug, and I never imagined it was to do with my cut.
“Someone took over my shift, and at this point, I was feeling very faint and my cut was oozing. It was oozing, and there was lots of clear blood and pus. My foot felt like it was pulsating.”
By this point, Susan realised something was wrong and so headed to Alexandra Hospital in Redditch to have it checked out.
Unfortunately, Susan’s condition deteriorated from there, and she was transferred to a specialist team at Worcester Royal Hospital for treatment for sepsis, strep A, and cellulitis.
This ultimately developed into a flesh-eating bacteria, which spread through Susan’s right leg and into her groin. Horrifyingly, doctors reportedly warned Susan that her chances of survival were low.
Susan shared: “Within 48 hours, the infection had crept up my leg into my groin, and this is when they said doctors would have to operate, and they didn’t know if I was going to survive.
“All I kept saying was, please save me. I didn’t care if I lost my leg. They say you see the pearly gates. In the next few days, I saw those pearly gates. I was hallucinating.
“It was a flesh-eating bug which was ravaging through my skin and leg, and I was fighting to keep alive. I had to lay down with my leg higher than my heart for 23 hours a day and was only allowed to sit up to eat.”
After undergoing debridement surgeries to scrape as much of the ‘flesh-eating bug’ out of her foot as possible, the support worker was put on a vac machine to have the infection sucked out of her skin.
Thankfully, medics were able to save Susan’s life. The grandmother of eight spent more than a month in hospital before being transferred to Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital. It was here where, on May 5, she underwent plastic surgery on her injured foot.
Looking back on her ordeal, Susan said: “In the early days, I was told by a doctor that they couldn’t believe I had survived so far as my infection marker was so high and I was very poorly.
“Your infection marker should be at five, and mine was 500, and you shouldn’t survive with this.
“I kept praying and hoping, and I’m here to tell the tale. I defeated the odds. They kept digging away at my ankle and had taken so much out I needed plastic surgery.
“They took skin from my thigh, which is the donor site, and put this on my ankle.”
Susan is now recovering at her partner’s house. While she’s been warned that her foot may never look the same again, the infection is expected to have no long-term effects.
Going forward, Susan has urged others to get their cuts checked straight away if they believe there is a risk of infection, as this may well save their life.
She continued: “A tiny, little one-inch cut that was clear and only needed a plaster on it turned into something so massive. If this saves other people going through what I’ve gone through and saves their limbs and their lives, it’s worth it.
“I would tell people to act straight away [if they are concerned about a cut]. I didn’t because I didn’t think it was anything to worry about at first.”
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