A DAD tragically died after “grazing” his leg on a piece of wood. Phillip Maile, was swimming in the sea in Turkey when he picked up an extremely rare flesh-eating bacteria that doctors were unable to stop from spreading despite amputating his leg twice. The 65-year-old from Worthing, West Sussex, was diagnosed with a deadly skin infection called necrotising fasciitis while holidaying in Oludeniz, Turkey, with his wife, Vanessa, in September 2022.
His leg started quickly turning black and blue a few days after going swimming in the Mediterranean despite his wound being dressed in a waterproof bandage and being told that salt water would be “beneficial”. The father-of-three was rushed to hospital on September 9 where, over the next five weeks, doctors attempted to prevent the infection from spreading. Medics cleaned his wound and amputated his leg above the knee and then at the hip.
But despite their efforts, Phillip sadly passed away on October 13 2022. His daughter Charlotte, 32, is calling on others to be more vigilant when it comes to their own pain. "The second that you have a small cut or an open wound that is causing you more pain than it should be, bypass everything and get to the hospital because the chances are it will stop it from spreading and it can literally spread right in front of your eyes," she explained.
Phillip and his wife Vanessa took a day trip to explore the Saklikent Gorge near the city of Fethiye while on holiday in Turkey in September 2022. T.