A Londoner who complained of a sore throat suffered a terrible misdiagnosis. First treated for tonsillitis, she was actually suffering from a “flesh-eating” infection.
Stacey Raymond is not far from death. However, last March, when she consulted her general practitioner for a banal sore throat, this 32-year-old Londoner was far from imagining the evil from which she suffered.
First treated by her usual doctor with antibiotics for a trivial tonsillitis – an inflammation of the tonsils – the young woman ended up consulting another practitioner when she noticed that after days of treatment, eating and drinking had become too painful. . This new doctor suspected a peritonsillar abscess and advised him to go to the emergency room quickly.
On site, Stacey Raymond received intravenous antibiotics and painkillers, but her health continued to deteriorate. “The redness on my skin started to move from my neck to my left arm,” says the young woman at DailyMail. “I was given a CT scan which showed pus migrating to my arm. They also found there was fluid in one of my lungs.”
A necrotizing bacterium
At this point, doctors reconsider their diagnosis and suspect a parapharyngeal abscess, which occurs deeper in the neck area and between the muscles. “The staff became aware of the seriousness of the disease and I was transferred to another hospital with a team of cardiothoracic experts,” recalls Stacey Raymond, who was then operated on.
“They drained the abscess and when I woke up the next morning I felt so much better. The pain was gone and I felt like I used to. We thought that would be the end of it and it had been resolved.”
But very quickly, his condition worsens again. The redness around her continues to spread and doctors find that pus is leaking from a small incision in her throat made the night before during surgery.
“The bacteria had become necrotizing and was rapidly destroying my tissues and my muscles,” says the young woman, who was kept under sedation and intubated, before being operated on again.
A major surgery
This new operation, lasting 4 hours, made it possible to drain the pus that had accumulated since the first operation. But Stacey Raymond was not immediately off the hook, as surgeons feared the necrotizing infection was spreading to the heart.
His wife and family were then warned that his survival rate would be near zero if the infection reached the heart region.
Fortunately, this sad scenario did not occur. After spending 16 days in intensive care, the young woman was moved to a private ward where she spent 32 days with the open wound on her neck so she could observe it and make sure the infection was gone. The 30-year-old underwent a skin graft, taken from her right thigh, to replace the necrotic skin on her neck.
On May 7, Ms. Raymond underwent a skin graft, skin taken from her right thigh. Today, she is out of the woods, even if she still has trouble moving her neck. This does not prevent him from measuring his luck. “I see everything in a more positive light and even though it sounds crazy, this traumatic experience is the best thing that ever happened to me and I’m a better person for it. It taught me how strong I am and how I am loved and supported.”
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