“He turned black and blue” Pope almost died from a carnivorous disease

The father nearly died from a flesh-eating disease that left him “swollen” and “blackened”.

Matthew Stanser, 51, has necrotizing fasciitis, a life-threatening infection that can occur when a wound becomes infected, and had to undergo surgery immediately or risk “dying in 24 hours.”

Matthew, the father of two, was put on a ventilator during an 18-hour operation, but this caused further complications and he now has only 18 percent lung capacity.

There is an affordable treatment, but it is expensive and is offered only in US clinics. Advanced stem cell therapy neutralizes the impact of the ventilator.

Matthew’s 17-year-old daughter Eva is raising funds to help the man.

Speaking to Teesside Live, the teen said: “It can happen to anyone, it’s not contagious, it just happens.

“No one really knew what was going on. When he was in the hospital, none of the nurses knew what was going on because he swelled up and turned black and blue.

“He was unrecognizable. There was a new doctor in the room that day, and the nurse asked the doctor to take a look.

“The doctor turned around and said that we need to urgently perform an operation on him, otherwise he will die in 24 hours. It was a terrible time for him.”

Matthew was diagnosed in 2013 at the Royal Salford Hospital, but the disease has worsened over the past 10 years.

At first, the doctors were puzzled when the father began to “swell up” and “turn black to blue.”

Eva and her brother Tyler, who live with their mother in Skelton-in-Cleveland, North Yorkshire, spent weekends with their father as children.

But Eva thought her father “didn’t want to see us” when he first started having health problems.

She said, “Being a kid, I just thought, well, maybe he doesn’t want to see us. Then six months later my uncle called and he said you need to go to the hospital, now he’s dying.

“We went, and my brother and I entered the room and asked: “Who is this?” He looked so different and it was so hard to see – your own father was unrecognizable.”

When Matthew finally had the operation, he almost lost both of his legs. Eva said he was awakened halfway through and asked if the surgeons could get permission to amputate his legs if necessary, which he signed.

During the operation, Matthew had a huge amount of skin and flesh removed. Fortunately, when he woke up, he still had his legs.

Eva said: “They put him on a ventilator and he woke up and couldn’t breathe. He was on it for so long that he completely damaged his lungs.”

Eva said it was heartbreaking to see Matthew, a former car salesman, go from being “healthy” to “unable to breathe.” She continued, “If he does not receive this treatment, he will have a year to live.

“It’s hard to do anything. He has a housekeeper who cooks and cleans and does all the shopping and all because he can’t do any of those things.

“Even making a cup of tea is really difficult. He can walk, but he’s out of breath and just twists around.”

The COVID-19 pandemic made it harder for Eva to see her father, who now lives near Worcester, as it was “illogical” to take the train to visit him for fear he would pick up the virus and pass it on.

If Matthew can’t get the money for the treatment, he’ll have to be put on the transplant list.

“There are currently 2,000 people on the list for lung transplantation. They only do 187 transplants a year and he has 2,000 before him – so you’re looking at 10 years and by then he’ll be dead. , said Eva.

The former car salesman has spent the past decade looking for a cure. Advanced stem cell therapy, US electrotherapy and stretching promote tissue regeneration, while other therapies help cleanse and strengthen the lungs.

Eve said: “It regenerates the tissue and reverses the effects of what the fan did.

“Stretching therapy, since he also has osteoporosis due to not being able to do much, also eliminates its effects. But she’s pretty expensive.

“Last year he went on a two-week trial and it cost him £30,000. He spent all his savings on it.

“It was only for two weeks and this time he needs to be gone for three months to get the right amount.”