Paramedic catches deadly ‘flesh-eating’ bug from horse poo – after answering 911 call to stricken jockey
A PARAMEDIC was left fighting for her life after catching a flesh-eating bug from a pile of horse manure.
The vicious bug, necrotising fasciitis, ate away at Haley Noele's leg, leaving a gaping hole.
The 29-year-old was tending to a fallen jockey on an emergency call when she came into contact with the horse poo.
Bacteria latched on to her skin, leaving her with a tiny red rash.
But within hours the rash had spread, as the bug ate through her flesh, killing off the soft tissue and triggering deadly sepsis and organ failure.
Doctors warned her family to prepare for the worse.
Haley, from Wabash, Indiana, spent two months on life support in hospital, and underwent six operations as surgeons tried to remove the killer bug.
Despite the odds, the paramedic survived the rare disease, which can kill up to 73 per cent of its victims.
But she was left with life-changing injuries, a gaping hole at the top of her leg.
Meanwhile, doctors were forced to remove a large section of her intestines, leaving her with a colostomy bag.
Haley has spent the four years since her traumatic ordeal, in 2013, re-learning to walk and battling other infections in the wound.
The wound that was left was so big and deep you could stick a hand in it and not touch any of the other flesh. It was bad
Haley Noele
The horror health scare even forced the medic of eight years to quit her dream career and she says she "lost everything" - but is "lucky to be alive".
Haley said: "As a paramedic I had learned about necrotising fasciiitis but I had never seen a case.
"When I first saw the wound I felt mortified. I didn't understand how a wound like that could happen in such a short amount of time. It was like gangrene.
"It made me sick to think that this bacteria was eating my flesh and turning it black.
"I was shocked. I was afraid that if I survived I would be disfigured and unable to cope with the distorted body image.
"But if I hadn't gone to hospital that morning I would have been dead."
Haley said the disease has "changed everything", adding she feels "lucky to be alive".
But she admitted to joking that "I actually really did die because this is such a different life".
WHAT IS NECROTISING FASCIITIS?
IT'S often referred to as a flesh-eating bug, due to the way it "eats
While the bacteria that cause the it don't actually "eat" through the skin, they do release toxins that kills off the soft tissue, turning it black.
Necrotising fasciitis (NF) is a rare but serious bacterial infection, triggered by several types of bacteria, including group A strep bacteria and E.coli.
These bacteria can live, causing no harm, in the gut, throat or on a person's skin.
In rare cases, they can cause NF if they get into deep tissue, via the bloodstream or an injury or wound.
Symptoms include:
- small but painful scratch on the skin
- intense pain that's out of proportion with the size of the wound#
- high temperature and other flu-like symptoms
After a few hours or days, you may notice:
- swelling and redness in the painful area
- diarrhoea and vomiting
- dark blotches on the skin that turn to blisters
If it's left untreated NF can quickly spread through the body, causing dizziness, confusion and weakness.
It turns deadly if it triggers sepsis, or blood poisoning, that can then cause multiple organ failure.
NF is a medical emergency and anyone who thinks they are at risk must get immediate medical treatment.
"I have lost the career I love and had to move two hours away to be closer to my family, I lost everything," she said.
Haley contracted the bug after being called to Indiana Downs Racing Track after a rider fell from his horse, in October 2013.
Within four hours of being on her hands and knees to treat the patient, she said she "knew something was wrong".
"I had a ridiculous fever and I felt this indescribable pain coming from a small red mark on my leg," the 29-year-old recalled.
"You wouldn't think it possible, but I felt like dying."
The tiny red mark started out measuring around 2 x 3mm, but within 12 hours it was 12 x 14mm.
Haley went home, had a shower and went to bed.
READ MORE: How 'flesh-eating' necrotising fasciitis TURNS killer... triggering sepsis and multiple organ failure
But the next morning, her birthday, when one of her best friends came over they told her to go straight to hospital.
"I wasn't coherent," Haley said.
Her friend rushed her to Johnson Memorial Hospital in Franklin, where she was put on oxygen and later transferred to Methodist Hospital, Indianapolis.
The rash was around the size of a softball or tennis ball by that point, Haley explained.
She said: "I had surgery to cut out anything that had been touched by the bacteria.
"The wound that was left was so big and deep you could stick a hand in it and not touch any of the other flesh. It was bad.
"I had six operations over a five-day period until all the bacteria was gone."
MOST READ IN HEALTH
Haley spent 64 days in hospital and lost 70lbs.
Since being discharged she has had to have further surgery to remove E.coli because the wound didn't close fully and got infected.
In March this year - after spending months in hospital - she underwent a radical colostomy to remove her part of her bowels to finally allow the wound to heal properly.
The operation crushed her kidneys and put her heart under pressure, which made her body retain fluid and swell until she looked "nine months pregnant".
Haley, who is supported by her partner Levi Holmes, 29, and dad John Foust, 51, is finally on the mend and able to look forward.
And she's considering a new job as a 911 dispatcher.
She said: "I feel so lucky to be alive, I frequently see that a child has died or someone has had an amputation.
"I'm very very fortunate that that didn't happen."
Haley is now hoping to raise more awareness of necrotising fasciitis, and has called for more research into the devastating bug.
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