Man's Rotting Foot After Bug Bite Cured, Thanks To 400 Flesh-Eating Maggots

A 46-year-old man, who was left with a rotting foot after being bitten by a bug, was treated with the help of 400 flesh-eating maggots. According to reports, Matthew Blurton, a designer, was unable to stand up due to what he believed was a just a nasty blister.

Blurton ignored his symptoms until his leg and foot started to swell. Then, doctors later diagnosed him with a bacterial infection cellulitis and sepsis. After his initial treatment at a hospital in Africa, he was flown to the U.K., where 400 specially-bred maggots ate dead flesh on his foot.

While the treatment saved his leg, nurses were unable to remove all of the maggots, with 20 being left to decompose in his foot, the Mail Online reported.

It was later revealed that the cellulitis and sepsis was a result of a bug bite, most likely a flea or small spider, on his toe.

"I've got a puncture hole on my foot and I can only think I've been bitten on my toe by something tiny," Blurton told the U.K. tabloid. "I didn't feel it, so I'll never know what it was... It's so small it was probably a flea or a small spider, I didn't feel it when it bit me."

When Blurton was taken to hospital, he learnt his foot was rotting and the dead flesh went all the way down to his bone. Doctors had told his partner that he was lucky to have been alive.

"It wasn't easy, it was quite a shock to see how deep [the dead flesh] had gone down," his girlfriend Katie Noble said. "Even though I felt really sorry for him, I felt like, it was my fault because I said that he didn't need to go to hospital... "I thought it was a sunstroke and it wasn't. I was feeling really guilty that it was my fault. He was in as much pain as he was."

Blurton talked about the maggot therapy, saying: "'It wasn't very nice to look at...I couldn't look at the photos [of the maggots] to start with. It was strange knowing that it was my foot."

"Some of the nurses hadn't seen this treatment before, so they were all coming in to have a look at my foot because it was unusual. I could feel them - it was like a little itch. I could feel my veins in my foot and them eating around them," he said.

The unusual treatment also shocked his girlfriend, who was concerned about his well-being.

"I knew maggot treatments have been around for a long time, but having it done on yourself is different," Noble said. "It was like - "what? You're going to put maggots on him? It was painful to watch 400 maggots eating my partner's foot because it was painful for Matthew."

Although Blurton has recovered, he has no feeling on the skin of his affected foot. However, he expects to have the sensation back soon.