DIETRICH, Idaho, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Idaho eighth-grader Slade Dill is back home this week after surviving five surgeries to fend off a flesh-eating bacteria, his parents say.
The Dietrich boy was beset by the dangerous necrotizing fasciitis after cutting his knee Sept. 18 while playing tag at school, his father Wayne told the Twin Falls Times-News.
The elder Dill said the scrape was "no big deal" until two days later when Slade's knee started to swell. During the next two days, the swelling spread and it started to hurt so the Dills took their son to a hospital in Gooding, where he was given antibiotics. From there, he was transferred St. Luke's Magic Valley.
The infection refused to recede and fluid started to collect in his abdomen and chest, so Dill was flown to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City. That's where doctors diagnosed he had the flesh-eating bacteria and began the series of operations that not only saved his leg but his life, the newspaper said.
Dill, who got back home Monday, is on daily antibiotics and will get his stitches out in two or three weeks.
"Whatever they say, we are going to do it and be thankful," his mother Dixie said.
