Baker in hospital with flesh-eating disease he caught gardening
WARNING, CONFRONTING IMAGES. One of Victoria’s best-known bakers has ended up in hospital with a flesh-eating disease that is targeting his leg.
Tom O’Toole is the founder of the Beechworth Bakery chain, and he believes he caught the bug while gardening at home.
He’s achieved a lot in life, from young baker to Order of Australian recipient, but a month ago he nearly lost it all because of a small cut on his leg.
“My leg was swelling up, the purple [colour] is coming up and down my leg,” Tom said.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to lose my leg,’ then I thought, ‘no, I’m not – I’m going to lose my life.”
Tom was cleaning out the back of his ute when he cut his shin, which became infected.
“The bacteria is called stepargonees and it’s kind of considered a man-eating bacteria,” plastic surgeon Dr Richard Zimm said.
“It releases all these toxins and spreads very quickly up the leg.”
The flesh-eating disease ate away most of Tom’s lower leg.
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“It was just like something you see in a bad butcher shop,” he said.
“My wife couldn’t look at it and she’s a former nurse.”
Adding to the danger, Tom had travelled to Port Hedland when the bug took hold.
“I went to the clinic and they looked at this and said, ‘boy, this is out of our league’,” Tom said.
“We usually quote that with every hour of delay in diagnosis, mortality doubles,” Dr Zimm said.
“It looked like I was dying, there was lots of tears and it was very emotional,” Tom said.
Four operations later, Tom is back in Melbourne and out of danger.
After spending more than a month in hospital, he is due to have a skin graft on Wednesday.
If that goes well, he will be home in a week’s time.
“It’s so easy to be negative, it requires no effort, and I need to put a bit of effort in and be positive,” he said.
