A BUILDER who lost all his limbs after his body was ravaged by a flesh-eating bug has died after being struck by the infection for a second time.
John Middleditch, known locally as Uncle John, had beaten ‘zero percent’ odds of survival in 2012 when surgeons removed his arms and legs.
But in February he was again diagnosed with sepsis – a deadly condition which made his flesh rot and turn black.
Uncle John, 48, died when the deadly bug returned and attacked his vital organs.
His partner Rose Banks, who has stood by him throughout his ordeal held a bedside vigil as his body turned black for a second time before he died.
Rose, 43, said: “I cannot believe this happened all over again. It is my worst nightmare.
“Me and John were one person. There wasn’t anything we couldn’t get through together.
“We never knew he could get this again. In the back of my head, I thought it would be like last time and we’d get through it together like we always did.
“I never realised it was going to hit him as bad as it did.
“Now I feel incomplete.
“A massive part of me has gone and I don’t know how I’m going to rebuild my life.
“John was my life and John was my world.”
Uncle John, who lived in Southampton, was first struck by the illness after it developed from common cold like symptoms.
A staggering 29 medical procedures followed and John faced death several times.
Doctors had to amputate all four limbs to save his life.
He shrugged off the death sentence and was adjusting to his new life, even learning to walk again thanks to new prosthetic limbs.
Rose, added: “Trying to adapt to that new life was hard. We struggled with life, with money, we struggled with everything. But on a whole, John loved life, loved the garden and loved the people in it.
“John had all his new legs and his new arms. He was on form, he was doing really good.
“He’d adapted a drill and got a work hook he could use in the garden, he learnt how to hoover, wash up, make a coffee, adapted a toothbrush so he could clean his own teeth.
“There was so much he achieved that a lot of normal people take for granted.
“We had a lot of banter in our house.
“Life was back to normal for us. He was just John.”
John’s progress was derailed when he fell sick in February, feeling run down and struck with horrific diarrhoea.
He was rushed to Southampton General Hospital where he spent five-and-a-half weeks fighting for his life in intensive care before dying two weeks ago.
Rose, explained: “They told us the bug had returned. This time it hit his whole body and he looked like a burn victim. His skin looked like someone had tipped acid over him.
“John had turned black where it was eating into his skin.
“I watched him, I cleaned him, I changed his dressings, I nursed him to the very last day. He would cry out to say how much pain he was in.
“The visions of watching his skin rot away then watching him die were absolutely traumatic. It was torment for him and for me.”
Sepsis is a flesh eating condition that claims the lives of 44,000 people in the UK each year.
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