Man is almost killed while gardening ‘after WW1-era bug lurking in soil got into his sore’

A man spent four months in hospital after contracting a deadly World War I fly while gardening.

The 64-year-old had to have half his back muscle excised and his legs cut wide open to kill the gas gangrene-causing bacteria.

Without immediate treatment, the infection is often fatal. It rapidly destroys tissue and blood cells.

Horrifying images of the Swedish man’s ordeal were published in a medical journal.

Doctors who reported the unidentified man’s case suspected he contracted the bug by cutting himself with contaminated barbed wire.

However, they claimed it was also possible that he had become infected due to the bug being present in the soil that came in contact with one of his psoriatic lesions.

The man required six surgeries to excise the dead tissue, as well as a lengthy stay in the intensive care unit at Vrinnevi Hospital in Norrköping.

Gas gangrene, known medically as clostridial myonecrosis, was notorious for knocking down soldiers during World War I.

Studies suggest it infected about one in 20 wounded and killed 28 percent of those who contracted it — even with treatment.

Despite modern military medicine virtually eliminating risk on the battlefield, the life-threatening infection still occurs sporadically in civilian life.

About 1,000 cases are recorded in the US each year, with experts estimating that a similar number of cases occur in other developed countries such as the UK.

If left untreated, it has a mortality rate of nearly 100 percent.

It gets its name from the gas that accumulates in the body and is produced by the bacteria.

The Swedish man first sought medical attention after experiencing unexplained pain in his left side and a fever for eight hours.

According to the man’s story, published in the Case Reports from the International Journal of Surgerymeasurements taken at his first admission showed that his temperature, heart rate and blood pressure had risen to alarming levels.

A physical examination revealed that his left side was extremely tender.

But doctors could find no signs of traumatic injury, with the man himself insisting he had none.

A CT scan showed a collection of both fluid and gas around his left iliopsoas muscle, which connects the lower back to the legs and hips.

The man, who is married, was put on a series of antibiotics and medics chose to see how his condition developed before undergoing serious surgery.

Two and a half hours later, a second CT was ordered.

But these images showed that both the gas and liquid levels in his left flank had increased and his vital signs had deteriorated.

It led medics to believe he had developed necrotizing fasciitis — or the “flesh-eating disease.”

Surgeons rushed him in for emergency surgery to cut open the side of the abdomen to access internal muscle tissue and the pelvis.

Upon removing the fluid, medics reported that there were “gas bubbles in the swollen and discolored muscle.”

They ended up having to excise 50 percent of the man’s psoas muscle — one of the main muscles between the spine and pelvis, because it’s necrotic.

Samples were also sent for lab analysis to determine the cause of his infection.

The man was sent to intensive care where he was put on a ventilator.

Medics performed a second operation 18 hours after the first, only to find that no more tissue had to be excised.

But they noticed that his left thigh was disturbingly discolored.

Surgery revealed that muscle tissue in the leg had also become necrotic and had to be removed as well.

Samples then came back to show he had had Clostridium septicum – one of two bacterial species that can cause gas gangrene, similar to necrotizing fasciitis.

Medics then gave the man metronidazole to help fight the bacteria.

But his left thigh had continued to deteriorate and medics had to undergo another massive operation.

They had to remove a dangerous buildup of fluid caused by the infection, but found that only a ‘superficial’ portion of the leg muscle had become necrotic and removed it.

Instead of closing the wounds, medics wrapped them with gauze soaked in hydrogen peroxide.

They did this because oxygen is actually toxic to the Clostridium septicum bacteria, so keeping the wound open slowed the spread of the infection.

At one point, medics even considered transferring the man to a hyperbaric oxygen therapy center in another hospital, but moving him was considered too risky.

The man would need three more surgeries, and his wounds would finally be closed a week after he initially arrived at the hospital.

It would then be another week before the man was taken off the ventilator – but his ordeal was not over.

On day 28 of his hospital stay, he would go into cardiac arrest.

The man also suffered an internal leak from a tube that carries urine from the kidney to the bladder, which doctors attributed to the residual breakdown of internal tissue after the gas gangrene infection.

In the end, the man spent a total of 135 days in the hospital.

He was unable to return home in his condition, being able to walk only 20 meters using a wheeled frame before being required to rest, so was sent to a nursing home.

Lead author Professor Måns Muhrbeck, an expert in biomedical and clinical sciences, at Linköping University, said they believed the man caught it while gardening.

“He may have suffered a tiny cut to his arm while moving barbed wire or earth came into contact with his psoriatic lesions,” he wrote.

He added that cases of gas gangrene often require multiple surgeries to remove dead tissue to avoid amputating the infected limb.

When the case occurred was not revealed in the report, but the medics obtained patient consent before publishing their findings.