National Necrotizing Fasciitis Stories

NF Stories

Ashley Bleas contracted necrotizing fascilitis (NF) doing what she loves best: working with horses. Although the exact cause of her infection remains unclear, Bleas implies that she might have contracted NF from poking her arm on a wire in a horse stable. Although the wire did not puncture her skin, she notes that almost immediately after the poke, she developed symptoms. She describes the initial sensation as a "strange feeling" in her arm, which quickly turned into a "dull shooting ache" that ran through her entire forearm. Because she had exercised that arm the same day, Bleas probably thought what she felt was simply muscle ache and soreness. However, she does indicate that the sensation was unusual: "It was something I had never really experienced before."

The strange sensation became sharp pain that evening and by the morning the arm was swollen, red, and tender. With such highly visible signs, Bleas' parents rushed her to a doctor. The doctor believed the case to be cellulites and issued her a tract of antibiotics. Bleas recalls that she could not keep the first pill down and threw it up in the car on the way home.

Bewildered, Bleas and her parents waited until the next morning for improvements, but the situation had become worse. Bleas was taken to the emergency room at the hospital, where medical staff remained stumped by her worsening symptoms. Bleas remembers that the swelling had by then spread from her forearm to her shoulder. After an initial X-Ray exhibited "a very large gas like cloud," doctors concluded that she had gas gangrene and was advised to have surgery performed the next day.