Afia Ohemeng
Jayne Sharp just wanted a nice manicure session but ended up with a flesh eating bacteria.
Jayne, a retired gran contracted the flesh-eating bacteria after a visit to the nail salon.
After multiple surgeries to stop the deadly parasite, the Tennesee gran is still regaining feeling in her hands
“I can’t shuffle cards when I play bridge … I couldn’t even floss my own teeth.”
Sharp said her ordeal began with a visit to a nearby Jazzy Nail Bar a few months ago.
The skin on her thumb was puncturedwhile there but she just went back to looking at [her] telephone.”
According to the American Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website, flesh-eating bacteria can exist anywhere. It generally infects people through a break in the skin
Skin can be broken by cuts, scrapes, burns and bug bites.
It is hard to determine where the bacteria originated, but Sharp said the symptoms started soon after the cut at the Nail Bar. She experienced throbbing later that day and couldn’t sleep since she felt so sick.
Sharp was asked to go to the hospital to her daughter who is a nurse. She did. She also had tests but the tests came back negative, so she went home to sleep.
Sharp went to the emergency room immediately a few hours later when the swelling had gone up her arm.
It turned out to be necrotizing fasciiti, better known as flesh-eating bacteria.
“Basically you have a break in the skin and this bacteria gets introduced under the skin into the soft tissue and then into the blood stream. She could have lost her finger or her arm if she hadn’t been diagnosed properly.” specialist Dr Udit Chaudhuri said.
Rare but deadly
As long as there is an open wound, necrotizing fasciitis can be caught anywhere.
Dr. Chaudhuri hasn’t seen many cases of it in his career and said it’s very rare for someone to contract this flesh-eating bacteria.
He also said people with compromised immune systems are more likely to contract the bacteria.
Sharp is a diabetic which made her more prone to acquire the bacteria.
Although she lost a chunk of her right thumb, she did not lose a limb and is gaining feeling back in her hand. Even then, she still has a long way to go with the bacteria.
The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance (TDCI) spokesperson Kevin Walters said no problems were found at Jazzy Nail Bar during the annual inspection.
There were no issues when a follow-up inspection was conducted as well.
