A man was scratched by his dog and later ended up in the ICU: “My legs were amputated and my face was operated on”

What started as a simple game ended up being the worst accident. Jaco Nel is a British doctor who has a coker spaniel and was always used to playing a bit rough until a dog’s claw ended up causing a supposed minor injury.

The scratch generated a small cut where a little blood managed to come out and then it was licked by the animal as a sign of “regret” for the pain caused to its owner.

“We had been playing a little rough and he cut my hand. It was a tiny cut. I cleaned it up and forgot about it. I never had more problems with that cut or anything, ”Jaco recounted in an interview with the BBC in 2016.

The doctor began to develop very worrying symptoms that alerted his wife: speech problems and strange bruises in different parts of her body. I was presenting a septicemia as a result of his dog’s saliva, but he did not know it.

“The hardest part of my recovery has been having to accept that I am now disfigured and that there is nothing I can do about it.”, said.

The start of the nightmare

According to him, the first days he was presenting fever and flu-related symptoms until one night he decided to sleep early, thinking that everything would improve at dawn, but it was the opposite: he woke up dizzy and dazed.

The next thing he remembers is that he fell to the ground and his wife was trying to make him react. It’s a “Terrible state”, described Jaco Nel, adding that he was in an ambulance and then being admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) to study his case.

“I was lying in the hospital, staring at my black, gangrenous legs and fingers. I knew I was going to lose everything. I realized that the tissue was dead. Even though the doctors had downplayed it, I knew how serious it was “he recalled after spending five days in an induced coma.

The consequences of the disease caused his kidneys to fail and he had to undergo dialysis for two months. In addition, lost his legs from the knees down, the fingers of one of his hands, the tip of his nose and her lips were scarred.

His skin tone also underwent a severe change due to the clotting problems in the blood that he suffered.

“It is difficult for me to speak and I also have difficulties eating, although now I cope better (…) I was very very close to dying”, detailed to the BBC about the ordeal she had in 2016 while playing with her dog in her backyard.

“There were times when I felt very angry and blamed my dog. But that did not help to avoid being sad. The bacteria was just bad luck. “added.