Daughter noticed a 'meaty' smell while her mum was bathing and called an ambulance despite her protests. Doctors said she’d arrived just in time
Margaret's diagnosis seemed to come straight out of a 'House' episode.
Since the end of May 2026, Margaret Jacobs, 67, from Scarborough, had been experiencing unusual lethargy, but she kept ignoring the symptoms. In fact, her daughter, Hayley Jacobs, too, noticed the pattern and realized she hadn't been eating or sleeping properly. Then one evening, Margaret went for a bath and refused to come out of the tub for almost 24 hours. When Hayley arrived, she noticed a rash on her mother’s thigh that smelled of rotten flesh. At first she dismissed it as a bug, but after Margaret insisted on staying in the bath, her instincts told her there could be a bigger problem. Worried, Hayley called the ambulance, and thanks to her quick-witted decision, Margaret was saved just in time, Yorkshire Live reported on September 10, 2026.
A frightening discovery
Hayley, a resident of Scarborough, North Yorkshire, recalled asking her mom to come out of the bath, but her mom kept saying, “No, go away!” This went on for hours until Hayley intervened, drained the bath, and covered her up. Her initial thought was that Margaret was suffering from a urinary tract infection. She called an ambulance and rushed her mom to the hospital, where she learned that Margaret had contracted "necrotising fasciitis," a life-threatening disease caused by a flesh-eating bacterium.
A deadly infection
According to Cleveland Clinic, “necrotizing fasciitis” is a bacterial infection that affects the tissue under your skin called the fascia. It spreads very quickly and can often cause deadly complications. It often appears with early symptoms like body aches, fever, chills, nausea, or severe pain at the site of injury, and can quickly spread and cause death. Around 1 in every 250,000 people in the United States are affected by this condition. As for Margaret, Hayley couldn't guess that such an infection could occur in a place like Scarborough. She believed such infections were limited to African or Asian countries. Doctors suspected that the infection might have entered Margaret’s body through a shingles rash.
'She was hours from death'
Had Hayley not called the ambulance on time, Margaret would have lost her life, as doctors later informed. “She was hours from death. If we’d left it any longer, she might not have made it," Hayley described. Margaret underwent five operations and was placed on the ventilator later. She spent two weeks in intensive care followed by six weeks in the hospital. After this, she was discharged and allowed to go home, per The Sun. But the incident unlocked a new fear in the family. “Be hypervigilant about everything, even a papercut,” Hayley advised, adding that, “I’m grateful to still have my mum.”
More on Scoop Upworthy
Share on Facebook
