I would like to share my survival story with all of the other people who have had to deal with this horrible disease. I was a very healthy 23 year old mother of three girls, expecting my fourth child, which was a boy. My due date was January 7, 2001. Later on into the pregnancy I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I went to my doctor towards the end of the eighth month, and he informed me that the baby was in the breech position, so I was scheduled for a cesarean on December 29. This was the first surgery that I had ever been through. During the early morning hours of December 25, I went into labor. My husband drove me to the hospital and I was sent into the operating room. My doctor was out of town for Christmas, so one of his associates was called in. I also had my tubes tied during the surgery.

Zackary Allen Smith was born at 8:05 am on Christmas Day. After the surgery, a nurse came and told me that the doctor had sent orders for me to go to the whirlpool. She said this was a new procedure that was supposed to help the healing process along. We finally got to go home on Friday, but I had started feeling sick on Wednesday. One minute I was burning up with a fever, and the next I was freezing to death. After we got home, I just got worse. We then noticed around the incision large red whelps and it was warm to the touch.

I was up all night with a very high fever and extreme chills so I went back to the hospital on Dec. 30. The doctor in the hospital didn't seem to be real concerned, but he did take some blood and I was sent home with antibiotics for a skin infection. Later that night, I was so sick that I could not get up without help, I could not stand to walk, and I was talking off the wall. My husband told me I had to go back to the hospital. So we called my doctor, and luckily he was back in town, he met us at the hospital. When my doctor asked me what the problem was, I explained what was happening and showed him my stomach. He said that there was definitely an infection, and decided to admit me to a room.

He said that once we got into the room he would open the sutures and see how bad the infection was. I was taken to my room and the doctor started the procedure. When he opened it he said that he thought that the doctor who attended the cesarean had clipped a bowel. So he told the nurse to go and call a surgeon who specialized in that kind of surgery.

I was then prepared for surgery all over again. My husband and I were devastated. This was a major surgery and I had already been through one, not even a week before. Plus I had a new baby that I needed to get home to. During the surgery, when the surgeon opened up the incision, their exact words were that it looked like brown soapy dish water. This was the first case of NF in the county I live in. My family was called in and no one could believe this had happened. The surgeon had to remove the whole lower part of my abdomen, from right under my navel down to the top of my hairline, and all the way across my belly. They only had to remove skin and tissue, I was lucky that it didn't get to my organs. After the surgery, I had to stay in ICU for 24 hours. I don't really remember much about that.

The next day I was transported to a larger hospital. I stayed there for a total of 5 days. During my stay there, I was put on a wound-vac.It cuts the the healing time in half, but it was very painful. I came home finally on Friday,January 5. I had to use the wound-vac for a while. I had a home health nurse who came twice a day to care for me. I went back on the bandages for about 2 more months. I have been visiting a plastic surgeon and I am scheduled to go and have my surgery to remove my scars. I am very lucky to be alive, the doctors told my husband that in 12 hours I would've been dead.And what really upsets me is that the doctors said that this bacteria was already in my body, and that it could not have came from that hospital. That is nonsense. I also tried to take legal action against the hospital, but none of the lawyers would take the case. They said that infection cases were to hard to win unless you had some proof. So I've just tried to pick up the pieces and move on with my life. I thank God for every day that I see pass. I believe that he kept me here for a reason.