A woman claims she almost died when flesh-eating bacteria started gorging on her hand and thumb after she got a manicure.
Now taking legal action, she alleges doctors told her that had she not rapidly sought treatment, she could have been killed by the infection.
News station WATE reports the Tennessee woman says she went to a nail salon to get a manicure, but left with a flesh-eating bacteria.
Jayne Sharp told the station she suffered a prick to her thumb, and from there everything went downhill.
She was getting the manicure at Jazzy Nail Bar in Knoxville.
Sharp told the station that she initially didn't believe the prick was anything to worry about.
However, in just "a couple of hours" she said her thumb began "throbbing" and she began to feel flu-like symptoms.
One of Sharp's daughters — a registered nurse — pleaded that she go see a doctor, which she did.
The next morning, the swelling had made it all the way up Sharp's elbow and she was taken to the emergency room, where she received terrifying news.
In hospital, medics told her it was all due to necrotising fasciitis — a rare but deadly bacterial infection that kills the body's soft tissue, reports CBS Local.
"The doctors told us had I waited another hour it might not be a good situation," Sharp told WTVF.
"I think of the man in Florida was dead in 48 hours from flesh-eating bacteria."
Sharp has since had multiple surgeries performed in Knoxville and Nashville, but she said it took months for her to feel normal. She added that her thumb is still numb and looks different than before.
"I'm just lucky to be alive," she said.
Sharp told the outlet she is pursuing legal action against the salon.
Jazzy Nail Bar First Coast News reports a manager at the nail salon said they passed a state inspection days after Sharp’s visit and that they clean their tools in a state-mandated method.
And a spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance told First Coast News that no problems were found at the salon during its annual inspection and a follow-up inspection after Sharp’s complaint.
