Boy, 8, recovers from flesh-eating bacteria with all his limbs intact after doctors didn't bother amputating because they thought he'd die

• Slade Dill contracted the bacteria after cutting his knee at school in Idaho
• Necrotizing fasciitis is the same bacteria that infected Aimee Copeland  - who had her limbs amputated because of it
• Doctors didn't amputate his leg because they thought he'd die
• Slade returned home on Monday and will make a full recovery

By Associated Press
PUBLISHED: 13:55 EST, 9 October 2013 | UPDATED: 14:46 EST, 9 October 2013 
 
A southern Idaho boy returned home this week from the hospital after a terrifying ordeal with a flesh-eating bacteria that doctors feared would kill him.

Slade Dill, an eighth-grader at Dietrich School near Twin Falls, was playing tag at school on September 18 when he cut his knee.

What initially appeared to be 'no big deal' became far worse. Slade's leg began to swell, and CT scans showed the infection had spread to his abdomen and chest, The Twin Falls Times-News reported.

Slade Dill contracted the same flesh-eating bacteria that caused Aimee Copeland to have her limbs amputated

Doctors in Idaho quickly flew him to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, where he was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis.
The boy, who is a runner, could have lost his leg, but doctors didn't amputate because they didn't expect him to live, his mother Dixie Dill said.

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Slade defied their expectations and is projected to make a complete recovery after arriving home in Dietrich on Monday.
He'll be taking antibiotics every day, and he'll get his stitches out from his surgery in two or three weeks.

Doctors in Idaho quickly flew Slade to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City for treatment

NECROTIZING FASCIITIS: THE DEADLY FLESH-EATING BACTERIA

Necrotizing fasciitis, more commonly known as 'flesh-eating disease', is a rare but extremely vicious bacterial infection. 'Necrotizing' refers to something that causes body tissue to die, and the infection can destroy skin, muscles and fat.

The disease develops when the bacteria enters the body, often through a minor cut or scrape. As the bacteria multiply, they release toxins that kill tissue and cut off blood flow to the area. Because it is so virulent, the bacteria spreads rapidly throughout the body.

Symptoms include small, red lumps or bumps on the skin, rapidly-spreading bruising, sweating, chills, fever and nausea. Organ failure and shock are also common complications.

Sufferers must be treated immediately to prevent death, and are usually given powerful antibiotics and surgery to remove dead tissue. Amputation can become necessary if the disease spreads through an arm or leg. But about a quarter of victims will lose their lives to the disease.

'Whatever they say, we are going to do it and be thankful,' Dixie Dill said.

Necrotizing fasciitis is a bacterial infection most commonly carried by a cough or sneeze from someone carrying the group A Strep bacteria - the same one that causes common strep throat - which can then be transmitted to an open wound by touch.

Typically, people who are most at risk have weakened immune systems.

That's one of the confounding details about Slade's case, he was in seemingly perfect health, an active cross-country runner for his school.

Twin Falls dermatologist Chris Scholes did not see or treat Slade but is familiar with necrotizing fasciitis, having seen the condition personally twice in his career.

He said Slade's parents made the right move, to seek help quickly.

Doctors were also to be commended, Scholes added.

'The disease is easy to misdiagnose. It may start with a red spot on the skin,' Scholes said.
'The infection goes deeper beneath the skin and can move relatively quickly and get serious fast.'
Slade had the same infection that fellow flesh-eating bacteria survivor Aimee Copeland almost lost her life to.
Copeland received huge media attention for her recovery after suffering life-changing injuries which led to her limbs being amputated.
Aimee was injured on May 1 last year when she traveled down a homemade zipline that snapped, sending her into a lake on the Little Tallapoosa River near Carrollton.
A cut on her left leg from rocks in the water became infected with necrotizing fasciitis.

Aimee Copeland, left, with her parents, Andy and Donna Copeland, outside Doctors Hospital in Augusta, Georgia, in June 2012, after her amputations