ThatsLife
  • WIN
  • News
  • Real Life
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Pets
  • Your Stars
  • Puzzles
  • Podcasts
  • Video
ThatsLife
  • WIN
  • News
  • Real Life
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Pets
  • Your Stars
  • Puzzles
  • Podcasts
  • Video
Subscribe
There's A Better, Faster Way To Predict Sepsis
Watch 0:37

There's A Better, Faster Way To Predict Sepsis

{headline}

{headline}

My face was mauled by a dog

My face was mauled by a dog

Fat saved my life from a flesh-eating bug

Fat saved my life from a flesh-eating bug

A popular household item left this woman with chemical burns

A popular household item left this woman with chemical burns

SHOCK PICS: A FLESH-EATING bug almost cost this Aussie mum her leg!

SHOCK PICS: A FLESH-EATING bug almost cost this Aussie mum her leg!

{headline}

{headline}

Flesh-eating Buruli ulcer is ravaging the Victorian coast

Flesh-eating Buruli ulcer is ravaging the Victorian coast

Mum paid $200,000 to fix her 8-year-old daughter’s face

Mum paid $200,000 to fix her 8-year-old daughter’s face

Little girl given 20 per cent chance of survival after ‘vomiting bug’ turned out to be aggressive cancer

Little girl given 20 per cent chance of survival after ‘vomiting bug’ turned out to be aggressive cancer

{headline}

{headline}

Woman dies from flesh eating bug after eating oysters

Woman dies from flesh eating bug after eating oysters

Terror as Australia hit by mystery flesh eating disease

Terror as Australia hit by mystery flesh eating disease

Woman reveals outrage as mother-in-law shares her pregnancy before she could

Woman reveals outrage as mother-in-law shares her pregnancy before she could

We couldn't have kids so we adopted SIX!

We couldn't have kids so we adopted SIX!

Angelina our angel is defying the odds

Angelina our angel is defying the odds

FESTIVE FAIL: 'I'm allergic to Christmas trees!'

FESTIVE FAIL: 'I'm allergic to Christmas trees!'

I carried my leg out of the bush!

I carried my leg out of the bush!

  1. Home
  2. Real Life

‘My face was eaten alive’

She was just trying to make a cup of tea. - by As told to Anna Roberts
  • 19 Oct 2017
‘My face was eaten alive’
PA Real Life

When Donna Corden went to make a drink, it was the start of a nightmare.

Here, Donna, 46, tells the story in her own words.

Dying for a cuppa, I headed into the kitchen. Wincing as I walked, I could feel pain in my arthritic legs. I’d had a busy morning – taking my daughter, Summer, 11, to school and doing endless rounds of washing.

In slow-motion, I felt my legs give way. Falling sideways, I could see my head moving towards the oven but, helpless, I couldn’t steady myself. Bang!

Colliding with the metal, I was knocked out cold. Coming to, I was a tangle of arms and legs. Thump, thump, thump, pounded my head.Meanwhile, my son David, 24, was calling my name. ‘Mum! Wake up!’ he shouted.Propping up my head on the pillow he’d given me, I looked around. Still woozy, blood dripped down my face. ‘What happened, love?’ I asked. ‘Your knees gave way, Mum,’ he explained. ‘You bumped your head on the oven and knocked yourself out!’

David insisted on calling out the doctor. ‘[You have] a nasty cut above your left eyebrow,’ he pronounced, carefully applying two small sterile strips to it. ‘You’ll have a shiner and feel sore for a few days, but it’s nothing to worry about,’ he explained. I was sure he was right.

The next morning, though, I felt awful and the skin around my eye had turned a puce colour. ‘I’ll sit with you,’ said my mate, also called Donna, holding a cold towel gently against my clammy head. But as the hours passed, I became more befuddled.

Increasingly concerned, Donna rang my daughter, Jayde, 26, and asked her to come and see me. Finding me slumped in
a heap, barely conscious, Jayde was horrified and called an ambulance.

before the accident

Jayde and Donna before the infection.

PA Real Life

When we reached the hospital, everything felt surreal as doctors and nurses gathered around me. ‘It’s necrotising fasciitis, caused by a flesh-eating bug,’ said a doctor. It turned out that the deadly bacteria was eating away at the soft tissue in my face.

Although alarmed at what she was saying, I could feel myself losing grip on reality. ‘Look after her eyes,’ Jayde told doctors, concerned for my sight.Their response was grave…‘We’re trying to save her life,’ one replied. My poor girl must have been terrified.

Semi-conscious, I was raced to surgery.For the next four-and-a-half hours, under general anaesthetic, surgeons had to slice away at my face, fighting to save my life. Coming around, I still felt too woozy to comprehend what was happening.

infected face

Donna's infected face.

PA Real Life

Then, as if I hadn’t been through enough, a few hours later, I developed potentially deadly sepsis, caused when the body’s immune system attacks itself, while fighting an infection.My family was gathered together as I was pumped full of antibiotics.

‘She’s very, very ill,’ they were told. ‘You might want to say your goodbyes.’ But somehow I fought through. Two weeks later, I finally felt lucid enough to speak.‘What on earth has happened?’ I asked, looking up at a crowd of weeping faces in front of me.

The last clear memory I had was of walking into my kitchen, to make a cup of tea. Slowly, Jayde started to tell me. ‘All this from a cut on my eyebrow?’ I gasped.

Doctors didn’t know why I’d developed such a deadly infection from such a small cut, I’d just been unlucky.Looking in the mirror for the first time, my heart sank. My skin had been eaten away and my smile was all lopsided. But I was alive. ‘I’m going to live life to the full!’ I announced.

A month after the fall, I went under the knife for 11 hours, as surgeons grafted skin from both my legs and thighs onto my face.
When I came to again, I was in for one hell of a shock. My face bulged where the skin had taken and the stitches were a totally different colour.It looked a bit like a rugby ball had been sewn onto my face.

after surgery

Donna after the skin graft.

PA Real Life

‘I look…’ I started to say, before bursting into tears. Slowly but surely, I got used to my appearance.

Two months after the accident I picked up the kids from school for the first time. At the school gates, I braced myself for the smirks and cruel comments.I needn’t have worried, everyone was fantastic.

Now I’ve just had another operation to reconstruct my face. It’s the first of many. I know I’ll never look the same again. That Donna died the day she slipped in her kitchen 10 months ago. But in her place is a bold, brave, strong women – who is just as beautiful as she’s ever been. And my scars? Well, they just mean I am stronger than the evil bug that tried to kill me.

For more, pick up this week's copy of that's life! - on sale now.

That's Life Mega Monthly! -SAVE UP TO 20%

LESS THAN $4.17 AN ISSUE - TRY IT TODAY!

Subscribe Now
That's Life Mega Monthly!

That's Life Mega Monthly! -SAVE UP TO 20%

LESS THAN $4.17 AN ISSUE - TRY IT TODAY!

Subscribe Now
That's Life Mega Monthly!

Recommended to you

There's A Better, Faster Way To Predict Sepsis
Watch 0:37

There's A Better, Faster Way To Predict Sepsis

{headline}

{headline}

My face was mauled by a dog

My face was mauled by a dog

Fat saved my life from a flesh-eating bug

Fat saved my life from a flesh-eating bug

A popular household item left this woman with chemical burns

A popular household item left this woman with chemical burns

SHOCK PICS: A FLESH-EATING bug almost cost this Aussie mum her leg!

SHOCK PICS: A FLESH-EATING bug almost cost this Aussie mum her leg!

{headline}

{headline}

Flesh-eating Buruli ulcer is ravaging the Victorian coast

Flesh-eating Buruli ulcer is ravaging the Victorian coast

Mum paid $200,000 to fix her 8-year-old daughter’s face

Mum paid $200,000 to fix her 8-year-old daughter’s face

Little girl given 20 per cent chance of survival after ‘vomiting bug’ turned out to be aggressive cancer

Little girl given 20 per cent chance of survival after ‘vomiting bug’ turned out to be aggressive cancer

{headline}

{headline}

Woman dies from flesh eating bug after eating oysters

Woman dies from flesh eating bug after eating oysters

Terror as Australia hit by mystery flesh eating disease

Terror as Australia hit by mystery flesh eating disease

Woman reveals outrage as mother-in-law shares her pregnancy before she could

Woman reveals outrage as mother-in-law shares her pregnancy before she could

We couldn't have kids so we adopted SIX!

We couldn't have kids so we adopted SIX!

Angelina our angel is defying the odds

Angelina our angel is defying the odds

FESTIVE FAIL: 'I'm allergic to Christmas trees!'

FESTIVE FAIL: 'I'm allergic to Christmas trees!'

I carried my leg out of the bush!

I carried my leg out of the bush!

ThatsLife
  • Gold Club
  • Online Entry FAQ
  • About Us
  • Subscribe Today
  • Contact Us
  • Terms
  • Competitions
  • Privacy Policy
ThatsLife Magazine Subscribe
  • Gold Club
  • Online Entry FAQ
  • About Us
  • Subscribe Today
  • Contact Us
  • Terms
  • Competitions
  • Privacy Policy

Brands

  • New Idea
  • Who
  • Girlfriend
  • Practical Parenting

Our Network

  • Better Homes and Gardens
  • BHG Shop
  • marie claire
  • Instyle
  • Beauty Crew
  • New Idea food
  • Women's Weekly Food
  • Bounty Parents
  • Home Beautiful
  • All Recipes
  • 7plus
  • 7News
  • Health Engine
  • Starts at 60
  • The West Australian
  • Perth Now
  • Airtasker
  • Society One
© 2021 Are Media PTY LTD
Get more from

Magazine Subscription Offer

That's Life Mega Monthly! -SAVE UP TO 20%

Shop This Offer
That's Life Mega Monthly!