Retired Firefighter Gets Flesh-Eating Bacteria on His Butt: Looks 'Like a Shark's Taken a Bite Out of My Arse'

"I came so close to dying,” said Simon English, 55, after undergoing four surgeries and spending weeks in the hospital

A retired firefighter was left hospitalized and fighting for his life after contracting flesh-eating bacteria on his butt.

On March 26, Simon English from Beverly, England, woke up with flu-like symptoms. He thought it was a bug from his wife, Kay, who works as a teaching assistant and had recently caught a cold.

"I just felt like I was coming down with a heavy cold," the 55-year-old said, according to SWNS. "I'm one of those people where I just never get ill — or rarely.”

However, English’s symptoms worsened and the following morning he said he felt “shocking.” He knew “something wasn’t right,” so he went to the hospital. His health quickly took a turn for the worse.

"The next two weeks are so blurry. I just can't remember what happened,” he told the outlet. "They gave me a lot of morphine, I hallucinated a lot. And then, when I came round two weeks later, a doctor told me I had a condition called necrotising fasciitis."

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Necrotizing fasciitis — commonly known as flesh-eating bacteria — quickly kills the body's soft tissue found around muscles, nerves, fat, and blood vessels, and it can quickly turn lethal, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.

The infection can be successfully treated with antibiotics and surgery to remove infected tissue, but only if it's caught early. According to the agency, up to 1 in 5 people with necrotizing fasciitis die from the infection.

English was told that the bacteria was on his left buttock from a cut he hadn't even noticed. The infection had gotten so serious that he would need surgery.

Following the first surgery, English required a skin graft on his buttock, which was taken from his right leg. His body ultimately rejected the first graft and he needed two-month rehabilitation after the second procedure. The infection was so severe that he even had an emergency colostomy to allow the wound to heal properly.

Related: Mom of 6-Year-Old Has Limbs Amputated After Eating Tilapia Contaminated with Flesh-Eating Bacteria

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“I had four operations,” he told SWNS. "It's quite scary when you think about this bug, really. I look like a shark's taken a bite out of my arse.”

“I ended up looking like I was about 70 years old after lying in bed for weeks,” he continued. “My nurse told me if I'd left it any longer before going to hospital, I wouldn't be here now. I came so close to dying.”

English was discharged from the hospital in June, telling the outlet that he is slowly getting back to his “normal” life.

"My wound has totally healed — although it looks a bit funny, because of my skin graft,” he said. "The surgeon did say of all places to get it — you'd want it on your buttock so it's out-of-sight."