A MUM says she almost died after contracting an infection following an emergency C-section.
32-year-old Krista Parise, from New York, gave birth to her son, Sal, earlier this year, but just hours after being discharged, the mum realised something wasn't right.
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After leaving hospital shortly after the birth, Krista woke up the next morning with a slight fever.
Despite scheduling an appointment with her gynaecologist, Krista was sent home - but over the weekend, the mum took a turn for the worse with her fever increasing dramatically to almost 39 degrees.
The mum also began to suffer with excruciating pain around her stomach, which started to feel hot to the touch.
On the Monday, Krista was prescribed painkillers, but the symptoms became unbearable, with the mum unable to even take a shower.
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"My mum was helping me with baby at the time," she explained.
"She would come everyday to look at my incision. It was more so in my lower stomach and it was really red and hot.
"It felt like I was on fire almost. My mum had a C-section before and she knew it wasn’t normal.
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"On Thursday, I couldn’t even walk. I was laying in bed and my mum babysat my kid in her house."
When Krista reached down to her stomach, she was horrified to find puss-filled blisters across her abdomen.
"I reached down to touch the area, and I felt a blister. And I thought 'What was that?'" She continued.
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"I took my phone and I took a selfie of it - I had all big puss bubbles all along my lower stomach. I freaked out and called my mum and boyfriend.
“I went to the doctor’s office and they said they were going to drain the puss.
"At the time I knew I had to go to the emergency room. We rushed to the one in Manhattan and something smelt so bad.
"I thought the smell was coming from the ward at the time, but looking down I realised the smell was coming from me.
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"There was so much puss and dead flesh oozing out of me. I was shocked."
Krista was rushed into an isolated room within the ward where nurses took samples to try and understand what was causing the infection.
Not long later, she was rushed into surgery for a life-saving procedure, where she was diagnosed with Necrotizing Fasciitis, also known as flesh-eating disease, a life-threatening infection which eats away at the body's soft tissues.
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It's believed that Krista contracted the infection following her C-section.
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She stayed at hospital for two weeks and was prescribed heavy antibiotics. Krista was kept in isolation and not allowed to see her newborn baby the entire time as doctors feared the infection could spread.
"I was so sad. The first time you’re ever having a baby it's supposed to be this really happy exciting time, then all of a sudden everything around that is sad and scary," she said.
"Had I had waited a day later I could have died, it was eating at my insides."
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