Woman suffering from rare flesh-eating disease
Danielle McKim says she doesn't know how she contracted a rare bacteria that nearly killed her.
By Kristen Consillio
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HONOKA’A, Hawaii (KITV) — Danielle McKim said she was having flu-like symptoms when she went into the hospital this summer.
Little did she know she was on the verge of death.
“She just told me — did the CT scan — she told me I had about an hour to live,” McKim said.
The Honoka’a resident was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis — or flesh-eating disease that eats away at the tissue under the skin.
“I was shocked,” she said. “I mean what do you do with that so I just said, ‘yeah, do what you have to do.'”
McKim said she has no idea how she got it.
After 10 surgeries, she’s now recovering at a skilled nursing facility as her wounds heal.
“There’s pus pockets. It like burrows I guess so one of my wounds is six-inches deep and about like this wide,” she said. “It goes after your organs so it’s pretty deadly.”
She wants to warn others about the signs and symptoms of the disease — including body aches, fever, chills, nausea and diarrhea, as well as severe pain at the site of injury.
“The signs of this are just a simple wound that gets progressively and progressively worse,” McKim said.
She’s urging people to be vigilant and get medical care before it’s too late.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rare bacterial infection spreads quickly and kills one in five people.
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