Recovering from facial Necrotising Fasciitis

Hi everyone, we are sharing our mums story to raise awareness as well as help towards our mums appeal.  Our mum, Lynn McKinley, is 45 with 4 young girls under the age of 26 who has suffered a life changing event.

Due to a fall on Friday 12th March 2021 our mum developed a small cut on her left eyebrow which we didn’t expect to require medical attention. However, it led to swelling around her left eye and cheek bone and on inspection we advised our mum to seek medical care as we suspected infection.  

On Monday 15th March 2021 our mum had taken seriously unwell and presented at A&E at the GRI and from there was transferred to the QEUH. She was taken for a CT scan which showed she had a rare bacterial infection called Necrotising Fasciitis (NF) also known as the ‘Flesh Eating Bug’ and had to be taken for emergency surgery early hours on Tuesday 16th March 2021 to remove the infection.

Due to there being a loss of blood supply to the soft tissue behind mums eye allowing necrosis to begin, the Surgeon explained the likelihood of mum loosing her left eye. However, on discovery in theatre the extent of NF was much worse, with it spreading 2-3cm an hour and mum developing toxic shock- like syndrome leading to organ failure. As a result, the Surgeons had to remove the full left side of mums face as well as some of her scalp, including soft tissue, muscle and some bone, leaving mum with only her jaw line and ear.

Our mum was transferred to Intensive Care where she stayed in a coma for 5 days fighting for her life with a survival chance of 30-40%. Throughout her stay in Intensive Care, our mum was transferred back and forward each day to theatre for multiple surgeries to monitor the spread of NF as well as to further debride soft tissue and muscle. Despite the odds against our mum, she was extubated and when well enough was transferred out of Intensive Care.

Our mum has now received her skin graft after an intense 9 hours in theatre and after a month hospital stay she is now home and adapting to a life- changing situation. The NHS maxillofacial surgeons have commenced life-saving reconstruction and will continue to do so over the next couple of years, however there are procedures required that they do not provide such as cosmetic treatments. Our wish is to get mum back to some sort of normality where mum is comfortable enough to face the public and continue to live her life.

We thank you all for kindly sharing and donating, it means the world to us.