An in-grown hair is an annoying, yet common, occurrence.
Yet, for Jawaun Brown, it as an annoyance that was to leave him fighting for his life. After falling ill, the then 37-year-old, from Ohio, dismissed his symptoms as a common cold. But, the shaking, vomiting and shivering he was suffering were, in fact, signs of a much more serious condition.
Mr Brown’s body was being ravaged by the flesh-eating bug, necrotizing fasciitis. The bacteria which causes the infection had made its way into his body via the infected in-grown hair on his right leg. The first sign that something was seriously wrong came when Mr Brown collapsed at his mother’s home. He was rushed to hospital where doctors diagnosed the potentially life-threatening infection. One surgeon told him, ‘God have mercy on you’, before he underwent a six-hour operation to save his leg – and his life.
The surgery was touch-and-go, with Mr Brown, now 40, reporting he briefly died on the operating table – before being resuscitated. Doctors later told Mr Brown that if he had arrived at the hospital hours later, there is no way he would have survived.
Mr Brown is a former government worker, who has also promoted music artists and worked as a photographer. He had no idea that he had an in-grown hair when visiting his mother Yolanda at her home in June 2013.
The then 37-year-old started to feel ill – but thought he was merely feeling under the weather. Mr Brown said: ‘I thought it was the flu. Nothing serious – just a fever. ‘I was shaking, vomiting and shivering, but I wasn’t worried.’
He went to bed, and the next morning his mother went to check on him – knowing he was ill. However, Mr Brown was unresponsive, and his right leg was twice the size of his left leg.
Mr Brown said: ‘She called 911. I was taken by ambulance to hospital in Wintersville. ‘I was drifting in and out of consciousness in the ambulance.’
At the hospital, Mr Brown was told by a nurse that he’d likely lose his leg. During the surgery his leg surgeons sliced open Mr Brown’s leg, from his knee to groin – and three-and-a-half inches of fat and skin were cut away. Blood and culture tests indicated the culprit was necrosting fasciitis, and he was pumped full of antibiotics to kill the infection.
But after the surgery, Mr Brown was still gravely ill. And so, he was transferred to West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to undergo numerous skin grafts.
