'I thank my lucky stars I am here' (From Witney Gazette)

'I thank my lucky stars I am here'

2:40pm Monday 27th February 2006 in Witney

A FATHER told how the MRSA superbug ate almost a quarter of his skull but he doesn't blame the medics.

Mark Wilson, 25, of Carterton, had a tennis-ball sized lump grow out of his head after brain surgery, and had to have his skull opened three times to fit acrylic and metal plates after contracting the infection at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford.

He is partially disabled with a loss of balance, and only five per cent of his short-term memory.

Yet he is not angry at hospital staff, but happy they saved his life.

He said: "It's bad, but I just thank my lucky stars I am still here.

"That's the most important thing."

“I thought I was going to die."

Mark Wilson

Mr Wilson, who lives in Lawton Avenue, Carterton, injured his head in a car crash five years ago, as he drove home from Burford.

He went to hospital in Swindon, but was told he was in shock and just needed rest.

But two days later, as he continued vomiting, he went to see his GP, who sent him straight to the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford.

A brain scan revealed a blood clot inside his brain, and he was rushed into surgery at the Radcliffe Infirmary, and told he had just two to three days to live.

But a couple of weeks after he was discharged, a lump appeared on the side of his head.

"It was where they had the incision to remove a piece of my skull, and it swelled up and started to weep like mayonnaise."

Taken back into the Radcliffe Infirmary, he said it had been discovered he had picked up an infection during the original operation.

"I thought I was going to die," he said.

Doctors removed the infected piece of bone about the size of a tennis ball and once given the all-clear, they inserted an acrylic plate to patch up the void.

But it did not take, and a second attempt to put in another acrylic plate was also unsuccessful, before a larger one and three metal plates were put in.

It was three years after the original accident, back in November 2000, before he was fully discharged.

"I have a filthy great scar, and you can see the plates," he said.

He can still play and manage local football side Southrop, and works at RAF Fairford, but he has balance problems, and needs to carry around a notebook because of his lack of memory.

He does not know if it was the original injury or the infection to blame.

Despite picking up the infection in hospital, Mr Wilson said: "At the end of the day, I just feel grateful for what they have done.

"Some people say the hospital should have been cleaner, but the hours and work they do are ridiculous, so it is not their fault.

"The fact they saved my life is far more important."