‘I believed I had a chilly however was hours from loss of life as a consequence of flesh-eating illness’

Friedel de Beer, 51, mistook Strep A symptoms for a cold before developing necrotising fasciitis and losing her leg, but is now thriving with her prosthetic

View 5 Images

A woman who believed she had a simple cold but ended up contracting Strep A and losing her leg to a rare flesh-eating disease is now kayaking and swimming with her prosthetic, determined to make “the most of every opportunity”.

Friedel de Beer, 51, a former swim school owner residing in the French Alps, developed what she thought was a cold in February 2023 and several days later collapsed, noticing blistered red skin appearing on her ankle. Her husband, James Hope-Lang, a 57 year old programme director, rushed her to hospital, where medics warned she might have only a few hours left to live.

She was subsequently diagnosed with Strep A, which had progressed into necrotising fasciitis – described by the NHS as the ‘flesh-eating disease’ – a rare and life-threatening infection.

Friedel was put into a medically induced coma so surgeons could eliminate as much infected tissue as possible, leaving her leg almost completely stripped of skin.

Despite this intervention, she continued to display signs of infection and underwent a below-the-knee amputation, followed by an above-the-knee amputation when the infection remained.

Friedel then had to master walking with a prosthetic, before undergoing another operation in 2025 to remove 4cm from her femur to make the prosthetic more manageable.

She now swims, kayaks and walks with her prosthetic alongside her 11 year old son, JJ, and said the experience has put her life “into perspective”. Friedel said: “You feel you are very lucky that you survived and it does change your priorities in terms of what you feel is important in life, and living life and making the most of every opportunity.

“I do have bad days or weeks and it’s overwhelming, but you just have to let it out and allow yourself to be sad, allow yourself to be angry, upset and then move on.”

On February 7, 2023 Friedel, who was born in South Africa but was then living in West Sussex, sensed she “was getting a cold” and despite taking painkillers she did not “feel any better”.

She “did not think much of it”, and several days later made the journey to her and her husband’s rental property on the outskirts of the French Alps near Lake Annecy.

She travelled there to meet her husband during the school holidays, as their son was studying there full-time – but during the trip she had to pull over at every service station due to extreme exhaustion.

Upon arriving in France, she experienced a gradual worsening of pain in her calf muscle and the skin on her ankle became red, though she did not “think it was anything serious”.

The next day, she collapsed on her bathroom floor and the day following that, the skin on her ankle “completely changed” and appeared “dark and blood blistered”.

She photographed her ankle and sent the images to James, who forwarded them to a doctor friend who advised she needed to go to hospital immediately, as it looked like she had an infection. There was no clear cut – instead, a red spot on her ankle signalled an internal infection that had spread and was worsening, manifesting itself on the skin.

On February 12, James rushed Friedel to hospital. After conducting tests, medical staff pulled him aside to inform him that his wife was battling “something really serious”. She was swiftly transferred to another hospital for intensive care as doctors warned they were “hours away from losing” her.

En route, Friedel was already succumbing to septic shock, and a scan revealed she had Strep A which had evolved into necrotising fasciitis. Upon reaching the next hospital, doctors immediately took her into emergency surgery to excise as much infected tissue as possible.

James detailed: “They made small incisions in the flesh, and they pressed the flesh to see if it bleeds, and if it doesn’t bleed, it means it’s infected, and then they just have to cut it out. They worked their way up the leg, trying to find the point where the infection has got to and try and cut it out. But they said it can move centimetres an hour.”

She was then put into a medically induced coma on February 13, for eight days, allowing surgeons to remove more infected tissue each day, until one leg was almost entirely devoid of skin. “Between my foot and the top and back of my knee was just completely exposed, there was no skin at all,” Friedel recounted.

When Friedel emerged from her coma on 21 February, she was still battling a fever, signalling an ongoing infection. The medical team informed her that an amputation below the knee was necessary to eradicate the infection.

“I said I have no problem with that at all, because I knew the state my leg was in and that I would really struggle to walk on it,” Friedel remembered. I realised I never really liked that leg very much anyway!”.

Just three days later, the doctors carried out the amputation. Despite this, her fever persisted due to a secondary infection, leading to an above-the-knee amputation on March 3, 2023.

Post-surgery, the fever subsided but left her feeling “very weak” and barely able to sit up unaided. By mid-March, after undergoing physiotherapy, she had regained enough strength to move from her bed to her wheelchair independently and was taking antibiotics to ensure the infection was completely gone.

She reflected: “I was in survival mode, I never really felt overwhelmed by it at the time, because the care was phenomenal, so I fully trusted that I was in good hands.”

In May, she took her first independent steps using her prosthetic and by July, she was back home full-time.

Reflecting on her journey, she said: “It’s helped me put things into perspective and when I have bad days I think I have to look at myself now – there’s still so many things you can do – I’m able to walk and do things with my son. It might be slightly slow or different.”

To contribute to Friedel’s fundraiser, visit: www.gofundme.com/f/help-friedel-recover.

For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.