Police Detective with Flesh-Eating Infection Fought for Survival

Introduction by Ross Dale

This past year, a police officer from Lee’s Summit, MO found himself struggling for his life from a rare flesh-eating disease known as necrotizing fasciitis. If you have even a very basic understanding of Latin, yes, that basically means dying tissue. The bacteria Joshua Ward had wasn’t just infecting him, it was literally killing his tissue; skin, muscles, anything it came in contact with. To save him, doctors realized that it “required immediate removal of nearly all the tissue and muscle from his armpit to groin on his right side.” The cause of this ferocious disease? Group A Streptococcus, the same bacteria that can cause strep throat. The bacteria can also live on your skin, and cause other infections such as impetigo, the likely start of Ward’s necrotizing fasciitis. So while unlikely, a simple infection such as impetigo could lead to a life-threatening, flesh-eating disease, which is why you should never slack on skincare. Matguard will stop that problem at the start, keeping your skin healthy and infection-free.