Mrs Barlow said the limb resembled a giant’s leg and was so swollen and hot to the touch.
An Atlanta woman named Jennifer Barlow has been hospitalized for the past five months after contracting a flesh-eating bacteria in the Bahamas and now has her leg amputated.
According to Mrs Barlow GoFundMe On page 2, the bacteria is believed to have originated from a small cut on her leg, exposed to ocean water during a trip to the Bahamas.
In an interview with Todaytold the US Army veteran, “It was so swollen — it was at least three times the size of my left knee. It was really scary. She added, “I was in excruciating pain.
She said when she visited the emergency room, doctors said it could be a simple strain. She was given crutches and pain medication.
Describing her pain, she said the limb resembled a giant’s leg and was so swollen and hot to the touch.
After a day, she suddenly passed out on the floor. Her brother found her unconscious in her home, forcing paramedics to rush her to the hospital, where she would be immediately diagnosed with septic shock and be in a coma for two weeks as the bacteria entered her bloodstream.
She showed signs of kidney and liver failure. She needed a machine to breathe and medication to keep her stable.
“I was very concerned that she wouldn’t survive this,” said her physician, Dr. Jonathan Pollock of the Joseph Maxwell Cleland Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center. “It’s fair to say her life was in grave danger.”
According to the New York PostMs Barlow had contracted a rare, potentially fatal bacterial infection that results in necrotizing fasciitis, or a ‘flesh-eating disease’, believed to be mainly caused by group A streptococci.
A 1996 report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are 500 to 1,500 cases of necrotizing fasciitis in the United States each year, about 20 percent of which are fatal. The National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation has said the estimate is likely low.
According to a New York Post According to the report, Ms Barlow was in a coma for ten days. During that time, she underwent 12 surgeries to remove dead tissue in her thigh.
Ms Barlow said: “I had never heard of sepsis in my life, and I had never heard of flesh-eating bacteria.”
When Mrs. Barlow was stable enough to be transported, she went to Grady Memorial Hospital for expert wound care, but eventually had an amputation in March, despite doctors’ best efforts to save her leg.
“We were all the way down to the muscle on the thigh of her leg,” said surgeon Dr. Tamra McKenzie-Johnson, who was also involved in her care. Barlow estimates she has had more than 30 surgeries.
Mrs. Barlow is now re-learning how to live her daily life with the loss of her leg.
The Go Fund Me page states, “This will help her get back on her feet… (or on foot), both physically and emotionally, to rebuild her life after such a devastating loss.”
Mrs. Barlow hopes to get a prosthesis. “There are so many innovations and technology in prosthetics. I’m very open to getting in touch with someone who can help me.”
