a man contracted one infection from a crack in your heel after get into the water in it United Kingdom and ended up suffering chronic complications health, according to his family.
The victim of the unfortunate event is called Sam and has 32 yearsaccording to information released by the local news agency Kennedy News and Media.
his wife, Georgiapublicly revealed that the problems for him began at the beginning of 2025after swimming in the town of Stroudin the English county of Gloucestershire.
«On a Sunday in April 2025, Sam went to take a bath in Stroud (NdR: it is a town in Gloucestershire where there is a river and a freshwater canal), something he had always liked a lot. Overnight, he got sick«wrote the woman in a publication from the website GoFundMeintended to raise funds for charitable causes.
According to his wife, the man 32 years began to manifest high fever y groin pain, what could indicate inflammation of the lymph nodes from the area, possibly due to an infection.
«His left leg had turned bright red.»
At first, both Sam and the rest of his family They thought maybe I had the flu.. But, as the hours passed, they discovered that the situation It was even more serious.
«It immediately became clear that something was very wrong. Twenty-four hours after the fever began, his left leg had become deep red. We quickly headed to the hospital without knowing very well what awaited us«Georgia said in the post.
According to the woman, the medical center confirmed that Sam suffered from an infection, although until then They didn’t know how he had contracted it.. Based on his condition, they told him antibiotic treatment and they sent it from return to his house.
However, the young had to go back to the hospital soonsince the symptoms they persisted. During the return visit, the doctors suspected that Sam had contracted the infection in the water.
«They asked him (NdR: the doctors): ‘You were swimming?’. And he answered: ‘Yes, five or six days ago.’ They told him: ‘You got an infection, probably through a crack in the heel‘(due to the entry of a microorganism through the wound)», Georgia said in conversation with Kennedy News and Media.
When her husband first went to the hospital did not think that his infection had originated in the water. «It’s not that he walked into the medical center saying, ‘I went swimming and this happened to mewhy did not connect the dots«he declared to the news agency.
Regarding the wound on Sam’s foot, Georgia commented to the same media that it was not a cut, «but a tiny crack on the back of the heelof which I didn’t even know I had«.
According to the woman, in the weeks following the incident, the man consulted the doctors again on several occasions because he kept feeling bad.
«We went to the hospital in four different occasionseach time hoping to receive a stronger treatment and each time they sent us back home with different or more powerful oral antibiotics. We were convinced that intravenous treatment was necessary, although it was never administered to us,» he stated in the publication of GoFundMe.
After a while, Sam was cured of the infection. But, according to his wife, left with a chronic condition.
«In the end, the infection disappeared, but by then the damage was already done. The severity of the infection caused permanent damage to the lymphatic systemwhich caused him a lymphedema on the left leg. At first we believed that the swelling would reduce on its own, but it did not,» the woman clarified in the post.
Lymphedema is a chronic condition that causes swelling in body tissuesgenerally in the arms and legs, according to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS).
The NHS reported that there are two types of lymphedema: primarycaused by a genetic mutation, and the secondarywhich is produced by a damage to the lymphatic system during the patient’s life. One of the possible causes of this damage is an infection, as in the case of Sam.
«His leg is very swollen, sometimes almost twice as swollen as the other»
Currently, more than a year after the start of the infection, man still dealing with swelling in his limbwhich causes him intense discomfort and limits your mobility.
«Now his leg is very swollensometimes almost double that of the otherand that affects every day. But the hardest thing was how changed the way of living«said his wife in the publication.
According to Georgia, there is an expensive surgical procedure that could improve your husband’s quality of life. Faced with this situation, dozens of users who showed solidarity with the cause donated money to the family.
«We don’t expect everything to go back to the way it was, but we are hopeful that it can recover part of yourself«he reflected.
