The 57-year-old decided to soak his feet in a bath of salt-water
A dad who gave himself a pedicure at home had to have his leg amputated when the treatment went wrong. Olubiyi Jibowu ran a bath, added Himalayan salt and soaked his feet, but the 57-year-old didn’t realise how hot the water was until he pulled his feet out and saw angry blisters all over them.
Instead of seeing a doctor, he treated the burns himself with Dettol, hoping they would heal fast. But the skin kept peeling off, and the wound refused to close up. It eventually turned black, leaving him in excruciating pain.
“I initially thought, these are just blisters, they’ve peeled and they’re a bit sore”, Olubiyi said. “I didn’t want them to get infected, so I thought Dettol would make it better. That’s what my mum used to do. She would put a drop here and there, but I kept pouring it on.
“It was pain I can’t even describe. I’m a big guy, but it was just too much. The skin eventually shrivelled up and was just torn apart. It went all black. I could see the fragments of my bone structure on my feet.”
Olubiyi, who lives in London, didn’t realise how damaged his feet were as his type 2 diabetes made it harder to feel pain. The condition can numb feelings in the feet and hands because high blood sugar levels over time can damage the nerves.
But the dad didn’t even know he had diabetes until he eventually went to the hospital. Until then, he continued walking three miles to work every day, totally unaware that the injury was turning into deadly sepsis.
By the time the addiction support worker showed his foot to his boss, the infection had already set in. The dad-of-one said: “The left foot just wasn’t healing. I went to work one day and showed my manager, and she sent me home immediately. I called my sister, and I was in severe pain; she could hear it in my voice that I needed urgent help. My skin was falling off.
“I went to King’s Hospital in London, and I just thought, this will pass, it will get better – and it didn’t. I was in the hospital a bit longer than I thought I would be, and it was just me being wheeled around in a wheelchair. The moment I got there, I knew it was serious. It was rapidly deteriorating.
“They wrapped it up and pumped me full of antibiotics, but there was no healing.”
Doctors told Olubiyi the sepsis could spread to his organs and kill him if he didn’t act fast. After weeks in the hospital and endless antibiotics, he was given the shocking news that there was no choice but to amputate below the knee.
The dad said: “I was in a state of shock; my mind was all over the place. I didn’t want the consultant who talked about that anywhere near me. I really believed there could be a better solution, not amputation straight away. I said, ‘Are you telling me there’s no plan B to turn this around?’ I was just so taken aback.”
The life-changing operation went ahead on August 8, 2023, around one month after Olubiyi first burnt his feet. And while the procedure finally stopped the pain, it left him facing a whole new life learning to walk again on a prosthetic. He said: “The moment the amputation happened, it relieved the pain I was feeling, but I was struggling with acceptance.
“I thought, am I going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life? It was a really hard pill to swallow. I couldn’t even cry. It was just life-changing. The prosthetic was a light at the end of the tunnel. After spending two months at King’s, I was admitted to a prosthetic place where I had to learn how to walk again and manoeuvre myself in a wheelchair.
“It was intense because I had all this therapy and physios.”
Olubiyi spent months in rehab and still battles strange phantom limb sensations every day. Now he’s urging others not to brush off small wounds – and to always get help fast, especially if they’re diabetic. He said: “My brain still thinks I’ve got part of my limb there. I can get phantom feelings any time of the day – I can feel the heel as if it’s there.
“It’s really important to get it checked out as soon as you see anything that’s bloody or an open wound. The doctors have specific antibiotics that will get rid of the infection, and it’s much better to let a specialist handle it. If I had had a little bit of insight, if I knew I was diabetic, it would have alleviated everything I went through. It’s an adaptation, and it feels like life threw me a curveball.
“Following the amputation, I thought, poor me, how did I get here? Then I would quickly catch myself and focus on the things that are of strength, positive, rational – and just let that drive me instead of wallowing. When I think about what I went through to get to this point, it doesn’t seem so bad.
“I’m going to be rational and positive, it’s going to be okay.”
Olubiyi is now raising money for a lighter, high-quality titanium prosthetic leg that will help him walk more comfortably, stay active and get his independence back.
The funds will also help cover ongoing rehab costs so he can live without constant pain and keep working to rebuild his life.