Man with new tattoo goes swimming, dies from flesh eating bacteria
WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: A man who ignored advice to wait two weeks before swimming with a new tattoo has died after being infected by a flesh-eating bacteria.
The 31-year-old swam in the Gulf of Mexico just five days after getting the tattoo.
He developed sepsis in his right leg when the religious tattoo became infected in the warm waters of the Atlantic between Mexico and America.
It is recommended that people with fresh tattoos should not swim in open water for at least a fortnight after having work done.
The man developed a fever, chills and a rash close to the tattoo, which deteriorated over two days before the man was admitted to hospital with a purple leg.
Doctors immediately suspected the vibrio vulnificus bug complicated by cirrhosis of the liver from years of heavy drinking, according to the British Medical Journal Case Report.
Within 24 hours of admission, the man was on a life support machine after suffering organ failure.
He battled septic shock, triggered when infection starts a devastating immune response which sees the body attack its own organs.
The man’s condition improved after two weeks, but his body eventually succumbed to septic shock, causing his kidneys to fail.
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