Dad loses quarter of his torso after failing to notice ominous scratch
A father-of-four has had a quarter of his torso removed and is now fighting for life after cutting his finger at work.
As an active 55-year-old labourer, Jeffrey Beck didn’t pay much attention to the small cut and had no idea a deadly flesh-eating bacterial infection eating away at his body.
By early November, flu-like symptoms started to worsen and a few days later, the Victorian dad couldn’t get out of bed, his daughter Stephanie Beck, posted on a fundraising page.
"He doesn't drink. He doesn't smoke. He is never sick and he's always kept himself very fit from his work, but mum knew something was wrong when his armpit swelled up and he told her the pain he was feeling was 10 out of 10," Ms Beck told Fairfax Media.
Rushed to the Traralgon Hospital, doctors diagnosed Mr Beck with necrotising fasciitis, an infection that occurs when bacteria eats away the body’s soft tissue and placed him in an induced coma.
After receiving emergency surgery to remove dead tissue that the infection had already killed, doctors airlifted him straight to the Alfred Hospital.
“Jeff has so far had a quarter of his torso removed to cut out the dead tissue,” Stephanie’s partner, Ash Neville, wrote in a GoFundMe post.
“They are now giving him hyperbaric chamber treatments twice a day to help stop the infection spreading and to also treat his large open wound.”
On Thursday Ms Beck said doctors had taken her dad off his sedation and were reducing his morphine.
"I went and sat with Dad last night and he could respond to my questions by blinking," she said in an online post.
"He would obviously be very scared and confused waking up as he will have no idea what has happened to him.
"The last time he was awake he thought he just had the flu."
The GoFundMe account has so far raised more $23,000 to help the Beck family deal with the mounting medical bills and long term accommodation close to the hospital.
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