My bra scratched my boob – I ended up in a coma fighting for my life with a flesh-eating bug

When Sylvia Halcrow’s bra scratched her boob, she thought nothing of it.

Little did she know it would lead to a flesh-eating disease that would bring her to the brink of death.

The 53-year-old, who lives in the Shetland Islands, had to fly to the mainland by helicopter for emergency surgery.

She was in a coma for eight days, before waking up to find part of her chest had been removed and a 18-inch (45 cm) scar running from her ribs to her arms.

Now ‘alive and here to tell the tale’, said Ms Harlow, has since ‘completely ditched underwired bras’.

Although she is not sure, Sylvia believes that the underwire in her bra caused the abscess and has now opted for a different style of underwear.

“I almost didn’t survive, so I’m very grateful,” she said.

“It’s scary to think this was caused by my bra.”

Her ordeal began in May 2022, when Ms Harlow noticed a lump on her breast that soon turned into a ‘painful abscess’.

The civil servant sought help from her GP and was given painkillers and antibiotics to help her keep her head above water.

But a few days later, as her condition worsened, she rushed to the island’s only emergency room at Gilbert Bain Hospital.

“I just knew something wasn’t right and so I went to the emergency room, I was in so much pain,” she said.

“When I came in, the nurse looked at me and hurried straight ahead.

“I was all gray in my face. It was really scary.’

She said doctors ran a series of tests and gave her medication and pain relief, but her condition did not improve.

The 53-year-old official was put into an induced coma and had to undergo two operations to remove the flesh-eating bacteria.

Sylvia has since raised £2,000 for the Lee Spark Foundation, a necrotizing fasciitis charity

“The doctors stood dumbfounded for a few days, I didn’t know what was going to happen,” she said.

Ms. Halcrow was eventually diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, a dangerous disease nicknamed the “flesh-eating disease.”

It is caused when bacteria, such as strep, enter the skin through an abrasion or cut.

Toxins made by these bacteria destroy the tissue they infect, causing it to die. When this happens, the infection is very serious and can result in loss of limbs or death.

Ms Halcrow recalled how medics then delivered the terrifying news that her internal organs had begun to stop fighting the infection.

She was then rushed to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for emergency surgery to remove the infected tissue.

“They put me in an induced coma and I had two surgeries to remove the flesh-eating bacteria while I had a cold,” she said.

“Looking back on it, I’m actually glad I was unconscious because I think I would have been really traumatized.”

She awoke eight days later from her medically induced coma with a 18-inch (45 cm) scar that ran from her ribs to under her arm and a significant portion of her breasts had been cut away.

But she would have to stay in the hospital for another three weeks before she was well enough to return home.

Ms Halcrow said that while she has largely recovered, the incident left her with more than just physical scars.

“It’s hard to have so much of my breasts removed, it doesn’t always look pretty, especially in summer dresses,” she said.

“But the important thing is that I’m alive and here to tell the story.”

She added that the experience led her to throw out all of her old underwired bras.

Sylvia awoke from the eight-day artificial coma and returned to work four months later. Since recovering, she has had trouble wearing certain clothes

“I’ve completely ditched underwired bras, although we’re not sure, I’m sure that’s what caused this whole thing,” she said.

“It’s just not worth the risk.”

Ms Halcrow has also raised £2,000 for the Lee Spark Foundation, a necrotizing fasciitis charity, in thanks for the support she received after she left hospital.

She told the charity last year: ‘I decided to do something because I found the foundation so helpful when I first came home from the hospital.

“The medical professionals can make your body better, but it’s not until you’re home and in your own headspace that you need someone to understand what happened.

“It’s a horrible condition to go through and they helped me understand what had happened.”

There are about 500 cases of necrotizing fasciitis recorded each year in the UK, with up to about 1,000 per year in the US.

The first sign is often intense pain or loss of sensation near a recent cut or wound, which is disproportionate to the extent of the injury.

Other symptoms include swelling of the skin around the affected area and general flu-like symptoms, such as fever, headache, and fatigue.

Effective treatment requires prompt diagnosis, followed by antibiotics and surgery to remove the infected area.

It can lead to sepsis and organ failure, with an average of one in five people with the disease dying even after treatment.