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We’re all busy counting down the new year, but for some people, 2024 can’t come soon enough. The same applies Anneke, who became seriously ill this year and was found to have flesh-eating bacteria. She crawled through the eye of the needle.
Lots of pain
“At the end of January it started with slight pain in the groin,” says Anneke in Grazia. “The pain got worse and worse and at some point I got a fever. After some Googling, I thought it was a hernia, but I didn’t have any other major symptoms, such as swelling.” Since her husband was away for work at the time, she was home alone. “I lay in bed for days; I was in so much pain that I could only lie on my back. When my husband came home after a few days, he was terrified. I felt so bad,” she remembers.
Emergency surgery
“The family doctor made a house call and I had to go straight to the emergency room,” Anneke continues. “It turns out I had a deadly, flesh-eating bacteria. Unfortunately, it was no longer possible to clarify how I got this, but my kidneys no longer worked.” She therefore underwent an emergency operation. “The doctors said I probably got there just in time. If other organs had failed, they might not have been able to do anything for me,” she says.
“The strange thing was that at that moment everything passed me by. The pain made it impossible for me to think clearly. More than 24 hours after surgery, I woke up again with a large open wound in my stomach. The bacteria had been removed and there was still healthy tissue around them. In order to give my body some rest, I was temporarily put into an artificial coma,” says Anneke. “Then I had to leave my wound open for a week to see if the bacteria had really disappeared. Irritating the wound was terrible. Every time I cried because it hurt like hell. After a special mat was placed in my stomach to replace the removed tissue, the wound was stitched.”
Months of recovery
“Then the months-long recovery began,” says Anneke. “Because the bacteria in my body had caused significant damage, I had to relearn a lot. Almost all movements such as turning, sitting, standing up and walking were no longer natural and that was very intense.” Fortunately, she is now feeling well again and is extremely grateful that she survived. “It was only later that I read that flesh-eating bacteria are rare. But if you have it, there’s a real chance you’ll die from it. I’ve really been through the bottleneck this year and I’m all too aware of that.”
Want to read more stories from women who are done with 2023? Read it in our Real Life Special in the current Grazia. Now in the shop!
Text: Renée Brouwer | Image: Adobe Stock
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