Major diagnosis for tyre fitter Anthony ‘Todd’ Birkbeck

Doctors first thought it was an abscess but a Gippsland man with Covid was quickly rushed to surgery after a CT scan revealed something much worse.

Todd Birkbeck after the first surgery at Latrobe Regional Hospital to remove dead tissue from his groin.

Todd Birkbeck has his partner to thank for after she took him to hospital where doctors picked up a rare flash-eating disease and immediately operated on him.

The tyre fitter from Morwell first noticed a lump on his groin sometime mid-last week but it wasn’t until he became dehydrated that his partner Margaret Forrester took him to the Latrobe Regional Hospital early Saturday evening.

It is believed he picked up a flesh-eating virus while camping at Golden Beach, possibly from a mosquito or just bacteria getting into a cut.

Ms Forrester said while at the hospital, they asked medical staff to check on a weird lump/rash that spread from his groin down his leg.

Since their ED wait wasn’t long, she said the doctor doing the rounds came by and had a look.

Todd Birkbeck recovering after his second surgery at Latrobe Regional Hospital.

The doctor initially thought it was an abscess that would need surgery to be drained and consulted a surgeon who sent him for a CT scan.

“It didn’t take long for the surgeon to come back in and say ‘we’re taking you into surgery now, you have a rare flesh eating disease called necrotising fasciitis and we need to remove all the dead tissue from your groin’, Ms Forrester recalled.

Mr Birkbeck went into a three-hour surgery at 2am on Sunday and again on Tuesday afternoon to remove all the dead tissue and bacteria.

He felt “a bit better” after the second surgery but couldn’t feel anything from his waist down due to the spinal tap they had given him in surgery.

Todd Birkbeck underwent two rounds of surgery at Latrobe Regional Hospital. Picture: Latrobe Regional Hospital

Mr Birkbeck also had Covid

Speaking from his hospital bed, Mr Birkbeck said he thought a tiny lump was pimple until it grew the size of a tennis or cricket ball overnight and became very painful on Friday morning.

His partner said she initially thought the lump was Covid-related.

“He went to work in the morning and it took him two hours to do the job that would normally take him half an hour to do. He just wanted to go to sleep but I made him come to the hospital,” she said.

Ms Forrester said he went to work despite having Covid as he worked in isolation.

She said being told of the flesh-eating disease and the need to have surgery so soon after the CT scan was “scary”.

She has started a fundraiser on Gofundme as Mr Birkbeck would be out of work for at least one month and the family has only her seasonal work income to fall back on.