Alex Lewis vividly remembers the day when, after he’s lost three limbs and half his face to a flesh-eating bug, his son saw him for the first time and recoiled in horror.
Then three-years-old, Sam couldn’t even bear approach his disfigured father, much less kiss him.
To Alex, it seemed as if he has not only parts of his body, but the affection of his son as well.
It started with a common cold that had been triggered by Group A streptococcus. Although generally harmless, Alex’s morphed into septicaemia or blood poisoning and eventually toxic shock syndrome.
“Mr. Lewis’s major organs shut down and he spent a week in a coma as the deadly bacteria wreaked havoc through his body,” said a Daily Mail report.
“After his feet, fingertips, arms, lips, nose and part of his ears turned black, doctors were forced to amputate both his legs above the knee and his left arm.”
Not only that, Alex also lost part of his nose and lips and had to undergo a 16-hour operation to reconstruct his remaining arm in a bid to save it.
Since then he had to relearn walking with the aid of prosthetic legs and reconstruct the family ties that had been destroyed.
Photo credit: The Daily Mail
It was not an easy undertaking.
“People saw that I’d lost parts of my body but what people couldn’t see was the impact it had on my family life,” Alex admitted.
Thankfully, everything is on the mend.
“All Sam talks about now is ‘daddy when you get your legs you can kick a ball about in the garden’ and ‘when you get your legs you can do this, that and the other?’”
Most of his frustration stems from his inability to play with his son outside, and when all he could do is watch him from a window.
But Sam was also the saving grace of Alex and his family.
“He’s kind of the glue really that’s kept us all together, in his own way,” he said. “He’s far more important than I think he’ll ever understand.”
Despite the harrowing ordeal he and his family went through, however, he chose to see it in a positive light—describing the past two years as the “most tragic but brilliant” time of his life.
“Our whole life has been turned upside down but for me, there’s a lot of clarity,” said Alex.
“I feel I’ve experienced life and death and I am just so lucky to be here. I feel desperately positive. I feel much stronger and every day is getting easier.”
READ: A severe allergic reaction caused his skin to separate from his body
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