Racing the Infection: Necrotizing Fasciitis Survivor Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe necrotizing fasciitis, the fast-spreading infection that most survivors would rather not hear called flesh-eating. Beginnings include a sore thigh with no wound at all, a caesarean wound five days after birth, chickenpox in a four-year-old, a cat bite on a piano teacher's finger, a stingray, a dog bite on a paramedic's last call, a pedicure, a hot tub on a sixteenth birthday, hurricane floodwater, and surgery ranging from a knee operation to a tummy tuck. Writers include a crab fisherman, a ship's engineer four days from port, a construction worker without insurance, a herder nine hours from hospital, an intensive care nurse, a kidney transplant recipient, a woman who once injected drugs and a man six years sober, from Houma and Exeter to Cebu, Accra and Narok County. They describe pain dismissed as a kidney stone, growing pains or a spider bite, repeated operations, intensive care, nine days lost to sedation, dressing changes and rehabilitation. The harder outcomes are stated plainly: some lost toes, part of a hand or a leg, one daughter faced a hard decision for her mother of eighty-six, and one survivor says recovery is still far from finished. Many credit a spouse, a friend or a nurse who pushed for another look.

Who it's for

For survivors of necrotizing fasciitis and those who sat beside their hospital beds, and for health workers who want to see those weeks from the patient's side.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 233 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.