Brave Jack overcomes flesh-eating disease

He may have an impressive scar as a reminder, but Jack Weekes is getting back on his feet to put a horror fight with a flesh-eating ulcer behind him.

He may have an impressive scar as a reminder, but Jack Weekes is getting back on his feet to put a horror fight with a flesh-eating ulcer behind him.

The five-year-old Blairgowrie boy was one of the youngest and most serious cases of 380 Victorians forced to overcome Buruli ulcer in Victoria last year.

With health authorities concerned at the rapid increase in cases over the past few years — particularly along the Mornington Peninsula — Jack’s parents are speaking out to warn other families.

“In the end it really got to me, watching it eating him away,” Jack’s mother, Tamsyn Weekes, said.

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Jack has recovered after a horror Bairnsdale ulcer. Pictures: Mark Stewart

“He has got a scar, but I am scarred inside from it.”

It is still not known exactly where and when Jack was ­exposed to the flesh-eating bacteria, but when a mysterious reappearing mosquito bite became worse in July he was taken to a GP who diagnosed him with a white-tail spider bite.

Two days later the wound was significantly worse and Jack was taken to Rosebud Hospital and diagnosed with Buruli ulcer.

He was then transferred to Frankston Hospital, where a four-month battle to overcome its spread began.

“All I was told from that point was ‘it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better’,” Ms Weekes said.

“But I was not prepared for what I saw.”

The small wound at the front of Jack’s ankle grew to a gaping teacup-sized hole, which an eight-week course of “hard core” antibiotics was not able to overcome. It left him stuck in a wheelchair.

The wound at the front of Jack’s ankle grew to a gaping teacup-sized hole.

As well as complications from a golden staph infection having to be overcome, two rounds of surgery were undertaken to cut out the bacteria, followed by two weeks in a vacuum-sealed dressing to remove more bacteria and encourage skin grafts to heal.

While antibiotics are usually enough to overcome the ever-increasing number of ­Buruli ulcer cases, Peninsula Health plastic surgeon Prof Warren Rozen said Jack’s infection became very serious and needed far greater treatment.

“Most are caught in the early stages and respond well to antibiotics so they maintain a small ulcer. But Jack’s was certainly sizeable and that’s why it required surgery,” he said.

“It is increasingly common in Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula and we are seeing it just as much in children as we are in adults.

“The vast majority of cases are small and caught relatively early, particularly now that we have a heightened awareness of the whole thing.”

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