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A young man has had nearly 1/4 of his skin removed to save him from a flesh-eating disease after a traditional Samoan tattooing session.
The man in his 20s was near death when doctors began cutting away the putrefying flesh infected by necrotising fasciitis, The Dominion Post reported today.
He was one of three men hospitalised. Another man also caught the flesh-eating disease, while another had cellulitis, a serious skin inflammation around an infected wound.
The tattooist is cooperating with authorities in their investigation and has put a hold on starting any more work.
The newspaper said it understood a traditional boar's tusk comb was used during the tattooing process.
Two of the men have been discharged, but the most seriously affected man is still in care at Hutt Hospital. He came to the emergency room on Thursday last week, two days after his most recent tattoo work.
A different team worked on the second man and could not confirm the tattoo link until the cases had been compared.
- NZPA
