Invasive strep: ‘Don’t wait’ to seek care, N.S. woman warns on long road to recovery

globalnews.ca:

invasive group A strep should not be ignored.“If we had waited, Steve would be planning (my) funeral,” Doucet told Global News in an interview from her hospital bed. “So we were so thankful to have an anniversary.”Doucet said it all began on April 10, when she developed a headache and flu-like symptoms.

Her symptoms got worse over the next two days, and progressed to a painful, toonie-sized “hot spot” on the side of her breast.The spot would turn out to be the beginning of necrotizing fasciitis – also known as flesh-eating disease – which can be caused by invasive group A streptococcus.Strep A bacteria found on the skin and throat can cause a wide range of diseases in children and adults. Invasive group A strep occurs when the bacteria causes deeper infections, isolated from a normally sterile body site, such as the blood.Doucet went to the hospital the evening of April 12, after she got a call from her mother who had read a Global News story about a Nova Scotia couple who died within hours of each other after contracting invasive group A strep.“She called me and she said, you need to go, and you need to go now,” Doucet said.The story, published earlier this month, included an interview with the couple’s daughters, who urged people to seek medical attention if they developed symptoms of the aggressive illness.Doucet is now crediting them with saving her life, sparing her family from “a lot of despair.”“If we had waited another 12 hours, I don’t think I would be here,” she said.