Mom says she was left to die after contracting a flesh-eating insect from Cesarean section

A five-year-old mother who was struck by a flesh-eating insect after giving birth to her son at the hospital said that she had been "left for dead".

Lena Holdsworth urged doctors to act after spotting the symptoms of infection two days after the birth of her child, Harry, in 2016.

However, the 34-year-old mother from Tyrone County, Northern Ireland, says it took six days for the doctors to have her operated – by that time her skin had turned black and purple.

After the operation, Lena no longer has abdominal muscles and her organs are "suspended" from her abdomen because of what she calls "negligence" on the part of the Southern Trust, reports Belfast Live.

She has now developed a potentially life-threatening hernia in her abdomen, but doctors told her last week that they could not fight off growth.

The mother's health problems began when she was 35 weeks pregnant with Harry and went to the hospital with pain.

She was examined by a doctor who told her that she was dilated 3 to 4 cm and that she was being transferred to the Ulster Hospital, because there were no neonatal beds available.

The Coalisland mother was then examined by another doctor who told her that she had been badly examined and was not at work.

She was kept for two days, but during that time her grandmother died. She was released to attend her funeral, but her condition worsened.

She said: "I was barely fit to get out of bed, but I managed to get in the car, but I spent the funeral in his training, throwing up .

"The day got worse, and the ambulance was rushed to the hospital that night."

After about seven days of infusion, Lena was about to go out, but a final badysis revealed that the fluid around the baby had decreased, her growth had slowed down and that she was lying transversely, so she had been reserved for an optional section.

She explained, "I was ready to leave when two consultants arrived and said they would do a last minute scan.

"They did and the baby turned, he was upside down so they said they would not do the section, but they would break my water and make me go into the delivery room.

"The last thing I wanted was a section because I had four normal deliveries before, but being very sick, I knew I was not physically fit for work.

"I could not even lift my head to vomit and even the midwives said," This girl was not good "but they went ahead anyway."

It was only when her natural work gradually worsened that Lena was rushed for a caesarean section. To her astonishment, she woke up awake "almost painless" and was told that she had a beautiful baby.

Lena visited Harry in the neonatal ward and "slept well" that night relieved that everything was fine, but the next morning, the pain came back.

She said, "I woke up and the pain took my breath away. The nurses said it was just the injury of your section, but I did not hurt around the wound, it was much higher.

The mother said that she had worsened over the next two days and alerted the midwives on a lump under the skin to the right of the belly button.

After being examined by a doctor, she was told that they could not find anything and that she was "just sympathetic" to what had happened.

She added, "I was crying and roaring and maybe on the third or fourth day, I was delirious, I could not get up from the bed to go to the bathroom, I could not eat or drink, I could not move .

"But even after telling them that I felt something had happened, the consultants said it was a secondary infection and that it would go with antibiotics.

"It was not until the morning of November 26, six days after I found the hunk and told them, where were my family, how long would it take, and how long would it take? would have to get there.

"They told me that they had to make me operate urgently, because my skin was black and purple and I had a flesh eating insect called necrotizing fasciitis.

"They told me that they were waiting, I would die and that there was no guarantee that I would come out of the theater."

"They called the family and took Harry from the neonatal unit so I could kiss him, and I was immediately operated on before my family arrived.

"They prepared Shane, my partner and my family, at worst, and I was given the last sacraments in intensive care."

Against all odds, Lena woke up a few days later in intensive care after being placed in a coma after surgery for two days.

She said, "From a height of 7 cm that started like this, they left it as long as they had to remove 30 cm of my stomach."

"It was an open wound, 25 cm deep and 20 cm deep, you had to fill it every day with pipes, foam and a vacuum cleaner, and I was in agony.

"I did not stop asking" why, how did this happen? "But I did not get an answer, they just told me it was an infection.

"All I was saying over and over again was that I had been telling them for so long that something was wrong but nobody listened to me.

"I had my medical notes and, according to them, on November 22, four days before the operation, it is written several times on my microbiologist notes to monitor necrotizing fasciitis."

After the surgery, Lena does not have any more abdominal muscles and claims that her organs are simply restrained by her skin.

After finding another lump on the abdomen several months after surgery, she explained that she had been told that it was only a hernia, but that She had continued to get fat.

Lena added, "In the last two and a half years, I have had several CT scans pbaded and I have been told that all my organs – my stomach, my bowels, my intestines – have fallen into one. mbad to the left of my body. .

"Everything is entangled and all this as a result of the operation I suffered after Harry's birth.

"I am in agony, I can barely walk, I have no quality of life, I can not do anything with my children. They told me they would operate when I was fit enough and when I lost two / three stones and in total I lost more than six.

"It's been almost three years and the situation is getting worse."

After learning in March that they would perform the complicated operation, Lena was devastated last week when they told her that they could not do anything.

She said, "I was incredulous. He said we would call you back in three months, but only to sign the consent papers, because if something happened to you, we would not be held responsible, if we did that, you would die.

"So I said you would let me with my stomach hit my thighs? And he did say that I would advise you to stop at Marks & Spencers on your way home and buy a corset.

She added, "A hernia can be strangled, blocked, can cause blockages in your gut, have I been sent home more or less with a death sentence?

"Will they just say sorry, we can not do anything and let myself die? It's not even a question though, it's a question of when things go wrong. "

Lena hopes that someone, somewhere, can help her and says that for her five children, she would not be able to get up every day, adding, "I could not complain about the treatment that maternity it was all the consultants and the best doctors who let me down. "

A Southern Trust spokesperson said: "Although we can not discuss publicly an individual case, we take very seriously all concerns about the quality of our care and have corresponded with Mrs. Holdsworth about his situation.