Brit killed by flesh-eating virus caught on Turkey vacation after dip within the Med

A British dad has tragically died from extremely rare flesh-eating bacteria caught on holiday.

What appeared to be a fairly harmless graze from brushing against wood, spiralled into a deadly skin infection for Phillip Maile, 65, after he took a dip in the Mediterranean Sea.

Despite amputating Phillip’s leg twice, doctors couldn’t save Philip who had been holidaying in Oludeniz, Turkey, with his wife, Vanessa, in September 2022.

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After sustaining the graze and dressing it in a waterproof bandage, it wasn’t for another few days before Phillip’s leg started turning black and blue. He had been told salt water would be “beneficial” but the father-of-three was rushed to hospital on September 9 where he spent the next five weeks.

Doctors tried to prevent the infection spreading by cleaning his wound but desperately resorted to amputating his leg above the knee and then a second time, at the hip.

Despite their efforts, Phillip, from Worthing, West Sussex, sadly passed away on October 13, 2022. His daughter Charlotte, 32, plans on running the Abingdon marathon later this year to help raise money for the Lee Spark NF Foundation, which aims to raise awareness about Necrotising Faciitis and support those whose lives have been affected by it.

She said: “I do not want people to be absolutely terrified of going in the sea because it’s so incredibly rare and my dad wouldn’t have wanted that either because he absolutely loved swimming and had he got through all of this there’s no doubt that he would have been back in there.

“But the second that you have a small cut or an open wound that is causing you more pain than it should be, bypass everything and get to the hospital because the chances are it will stop it from spreading and it can literally spread right in front of your eyes.”

Phillip and his wife Vanessa took a day trip to explore the Saklikent Gorge near the city of Fethiye while on holiday in Turkey in September 2022. They stopped for lunch at the Yaka Park Fish Farm before making their way to a nearby waterfall where Phillip climbed a flight of wooden stairs to reach the viewing platform.

He had only taken a few steps when his foot suddenly went through one of the rotten planks right up to his knee. Fortunately he was unharmed except for a small cut on his left leg.

“He got this little scratch which was tiny. It looked like a graze. That’s the best way to describe it,” said Charlotte.

A few days later, out of precaution, Phillip, who had type 2 diabetes, visited a pharmacy where his wound was dressed in a waterproof bandage. Charlotte said her dad was told by the pharmacist he could continue swimming in the sea as the wound was only small and the salt water would be beneficial.

Over the next few days, Phillip continued swimming but started complaining that his wound was causing him a lot of pain.

“Despite the waterproof dressing the seawater obviously got in, but we didn’t know this at the time,” said Charlotte. “Every single person we spoke to at the hospital said that the infection came from the sea.”

Phillip’s wound became infected with a rare type of bacteria called Vibrio vulnificus, sometimes dubbed the flesh-eating bacteria, as it can trigger necrotising fasciitis, a severe infection where the flesh around an open wound dies. Charlotte was on a work trip in Ireland when her stepmother, Vanessa, called to say that her father had been taken to the public hospital.

At first, doctors were unable to put their finger on why Phillip was in so much pain but there were signs that his condition was getting worse. “His leg started to go blue and then black and you could almost see how quickly it was travelling up his leg,” said Charlotte.

On September 9, just 24 hours after receiving her stepmother’s call, Charlotte and her siblings, Sarah, 37, and Edward, 35, were told to board a plane to Turkey as their father was being “blue-lighted” to the Antalya Lara Anadolu Hospital. Her stepmum, Vanessa, had arranged for them all to stay in a serviced apartment seven and a half minutes’ walk away from the hospital.

After his first amputation, Phillip suffered septic shock and had to be placed on dialysis to clean his blood. The second amputation failed to prevent the deadly bacteria from spreading and, after fighting for another three weeks, Phillip died on October 13, 2022.

After losing their father, Charlotte’s sister, Sarah, contacted a charity called the Lee Spark NF Foundation. Charlotte plans on running the the Abingdon marathon on October 20, 2024, to help raise money for the charity and has already raised more than £2,500 on GoFundMe.