My name is Ashley Parsons-Abbott, I am 31 years old and live in Sandyville, WV. Feb 17th 2019 I played basketball outside with my 9 year old son. As I settled into bed that Sunday night, I noticed a small bruise near my pinkie knuckle. Monday Feb 18th , morning as I awoke I discovered slightly more swelling and put ice on it and laid back down. I woke up later that morning with swelling starting down my arm. I went to the local hospital and was told my white blood cell count was at 21000. My hands were dry and cracked and while playing basketball, dirt and bacteria got in the cracked skin. I was transported to a hospital a couple hours away. During the ambulance ride, I went into septic shock. I arrived at Huntington hospital and went into emergency surgery to save my arm!! I was then told I had developed necrotizing fasciitis (flesh eating bacteria). Wednesday Feb 20th I woke up from surgery! My family and my husband's family both were there, just hoping for me to wake up. I was just waking up from surgery not knowing how serious things had been or even that I lost two days and had been on a ventilator, with my kidneys failing and close to death. But I was in ICU so I knew things were serious.
I got out of the hospital Friday Mar 1, 2019. During my hospital stay I had two more surgeries (other than the initial emergency surgery). One was to cut the rest of the dead skin from my arm and the second was to close up as much of my arm as they could.
Today Mon Mar 4, 2019 I sit here 3 days after being discharged from the hospital. I have 21 staples in the top of my arm and 26 staples in the bottom of my arm. Several stitches in my palm (didn’t count). I have a PICC line (iv) in my left arm giving me antibiotic 24/7 . I change the antibiotic every 24 hours. My right arm (infected arm) still has a pretty good opening on the top that they could not close ( I will have to have skin grafts in a few weeks) I have a wound vac on that. Its helping to regrow the "meat" back to make it level to my skin and prepare it for the skin graft. I have my wound and vac changed 3 times a week.
But I’m alive and get to see my family. I still have my arm and all my fingers.... and that's all that really matters.. but there's my story for those that wanted to know.