65YO Woman in England Almost Died After Her Deep Cat Scratch Turned Into A Flesh-Eating Disease

Among the many different types of animals we keep as pets, there is one species that despite our numerous attempts to show it love and maintain peace, remains unmoved.

I’m talking, of course, about the cat.

For centuries, this cute-looking monster has terrorized humans who dared to do abominable things such as feed it and give it affection.

Once a cat enters a house, it owns it, you, and everything you have.

Dogs want to smother you with affection, while cats want to smother you in your sleep.

If you think I’m being dramatic, just take a look at what happened to one poor woman in England.

65YO Woman Almost Died After A Deep Cat Scratch Turned Into Flesh-Eating Disease

Shirley Hair, a 65-year-old woman from England, purchased a Siamese cat in July 2016 for £400 (~S$700). She said that he was adorable as a kitten but became more aggressive as he got older and often left her with bites and scratches.

That’s how these cats get you. 

Cat scratches are usually harmless, or so Shirley thought after the Siamese cat scratched her in April 2018. According to the Daily Mail, she had picked up the cat for a cuddle, but it lashed out at her and clawed at the back of her hand.

Cat: How dare you show me affection?

After the incident, she started experiencing dizziness, loss of appetite, and muscle aches but she mistook it for the flu.

However, when her wound became inflamed and turned bright red, she rushed to the hospital.

Emergency surgery

Doctors diagnosed Shirley with sepsis, septic shock, organ failure, pneumonia and Necrotising fasciitis (NF) – a flesh-eating disease that results in the death of parts of the body’s soft tissue.

We can’t show the image here, because it is incredibly graphic. When I saw it, even the goosebumps on my skin were like:

But if you’re a sick human who enjoys looking at extremely graphic images, you can view it on Daily Mail’s site.

Shirley had to undergo emergency surgery to remove the infected tissue from her hand. She was then placed in a medically-induced coma to allow her body to rest.

Doctors concluded that it was the cat scratch that exposed her body to the flesh-eating disease.

Suffered two heart attacks

Even after her emergency surgery, Shirley wasn’t recovering well. And it kept getting worse; after another operation to remove the infection, Shirley suffered two heart attacks. 

Thus, she had to be sedated and ventilated so she could recover from the heart attacks as well as the operations.

She was kept in the ICU for a long time and only showed improvement after a month. After her condition improved, doctors performed a skin graft from the top of her leg in order to cover the wound on her arm, which was so deep that some of her tendons were exposed.

Doctors then used a vac pump – a machine that decreases air pressure on the wound – to help her skin tissue grow. She was also given multiple physiotherapy sessions to regain movement.

Thankfully, after more than eight operations and two months in the hospital, the 65-year-old is now well and back at home. Her hand is “almost as good as it was” before the incident.

Understandably, her Siamese cat has been re-homed.

Husband: How about another cat?

Shirley: Surely you must be joking?

Husband: I’m not, and don’t call me Shirley.