A woman had to have her leg amputated after contracting a rare ‘flesh eating’ bug. Emma Doherty, 37, caught life-threatening infection necrotising fasciitis while being treated for sepsis in February 2021.
Also known as the "flesh-eating disease", necrotising fasciitis is a rare and life-threatening infection that can happen if a wound gets infected. It infects the soft tissue below the skin, particularly the fascia. It is most common on the legs but can affect any part of the body.
Emma, a previously-fit cross country runner, believes she caught the disease while she was in hospital and her immune system was low. She was given a less-than 1% chance of survival and doctors told her mum to consider turning off her life support machine.
