Man has ‘life-saving’ surgery after flesh-eating bacteria from tooth infection leaves his eye full of pus-Meghna Amin-Entertainment – Metro

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A man has undergone life-changing surgery after his tooth infection spread across his face, sparking concern that he could lose his vision when the area under his eye became filled with pus.

Terry is sharing his journey on The Face Doctors, a new series following cutting-edge treatment to rebuild and repair wounds from genetic conditions to emergency trauma.

In his case, things took an unexpected turn after the removal of a tooth at his local dentist following an abscess, and he was rushed to A&E to prevent the situation worsening.

He explains to the doctors: ‘I left it too long really, I waited until Monday to go back to the dentist and they sent me over here with a letter.’

He’s then told the cause of the swelling under his eye was likely from inside his mouth, and due to the immediate concern, is initially treated while still in the hospital ward.

‘Tooth infections can be really dangerous, because if it spreads into the eye socket he could lose his vision and that would be catastrophic. In addition, he could be left with significant disfigurement, consequences of this appearance, his self-esteem, so this is a more urgent case,’ explains maxillofacial surgeon Shadi Basyuni.

Dr Shadi first tries to remove as much of the pus from Terry’s eye as possible, making a small incision in the skin around Terry’s eye, and reassuring him: ‘What I’m trying to do is the least amount possible to get as much infection out, OK?’

Terry is sharing his surgery and recovery (Picture: Really UK)

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However, the priority for Dr Shadi is to get as much pus out as possible to relieve the strain on Terry’s bulging eye, as he explains: ‘The priority here is not aesthetics I’m afraid, it’s trying to get as much of this infection out.

‘If it spreads into the eye socket he could lose an eye. If it spreads into his bloodstream, he could get more generally unwell, and we call that sepsis, which can be life-threatening.’

Terry soon finds out that the situation is worse than he initially thought and that it is a ‘very aggressive infection’, with his fears confirmed after overnight tests show that a life-threatening disease is eating away at his face, and he is quickly rushed to surgery.

A doctor warns: ‘If you don’t manage these promptly there can be devastating consequences for the patient, it can be life-threatening. If we left this any longer, he could rapidly go into multi-organ failure so his lungs could pack up, his kidneys could pack up and this actually has quite a high mortality rate.’

Flesh-eating bacteria spread across Terry’s face (Picture: Really UK)

His condition concerned doctors (Picture: Really UK)

There was concern he’d lose his eye (Picture: Really UK)

The pus is drained from Terry’s eye in surgery (Picture: Really UK)

In the operating theatre, a team of specialists work to remove the pus from Terry’s face, commenting that there is tissue around his face that is full of ‘microorganisms and bugs’.

Not only that, but the skin of Terry’s eyelid has turned black, which is a ‘big worry’ for doctors, and they urgently remove all the pus and dead tissue to stop it further spreading.

After draining the fluid from his cheek, they leave the wound under his eye open to heal, with a doctor saying ‘the oldest surgical rule in the book’ is ‘if there’s pus, let it out!’

After an eight-week recovery, Terry is left commenting on how the surgery saved his life.

‘Any further than that, it could have gone to my brain, and that would have been curtains wouldn’t it,’ he says.

The wound is left open to heal (Picture: Really UK)

Terry has fully recovered (Picture: Really UK)

He thinks the doctors saved his life (Picture: Really UK)

‘You don’t realise how lucky you are when you’re going through life normally until something like that happens and makes you realise what you’ve got really.’

He goes on: ‘All the people that saw me, all the team, even down into the operating theatre, there was a lot of people in there, they all did a fantastic job. I’m so grateful to them.

‘I think they saved my life, because if they weren’t there to do that, I’d be gone. It’s pretty frightening really, the thought of that..

‘I’m pretty lucky to be back to normal basically’,’ he adds, before cheekily laughing as he says: ‘I’ve still got my good looks.’

Brand-new series The Face Doctors airs at 9pm on Wednesdays on Really and is available to stream on discovery+.

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