AUGUST 3 2019 LISTENER 17
commonly spread in hospitals, but in
New Zealand, they’re usually spread
in the community.
In fact, this country has one of the
highest rates of invasive and non-inva-
sive Staphylococcus aureus infections,
including MRSA, in the developed
world.
After 70 years of being fit and well,
Kelly was shocked to find himself in
hospital for the first time, and for
two weeks. And it was the worst pos-
sible timing. It looked as though he
wouldn’t make his youngest son’s
wedding in London in four weeks’
time. His other three sons and their
families were all going, too. It was to
be the family occasion of a lifetime.
While Kelly was in hospital, he
found out that a family friend, Paul
Sullivan (33), was also in hospital,
in Rotorua, with a serious MRSA
infection. It seemed an amazing
coincidence. Sullivan sent Kelly some
photos of the crater-like hole in his arm.
Kelly was worried when he heard Sulli-
van had been trying to treat the infection
himself. “I was really concerned for him,
knowing how quickly it had floored me,”
he says.
RAPID IMPROVEMENT
The story of Sullivan, a law and commerce
graduate with an MSc in environmental
policy and regulation from the London
School of Economics, began just after last
Christmas, when he, partner Fliss Win-
stone and daughter Chloe were on holiday
in Queenstown.
“I had a spill on my mountain bike on
the Rude Rock Trail on Coronet Peak, but
I had only superficial grazes on my elbow
and left knee. Nothing major.” Having seen
his share of serious illness during a spell
working in poor communities in India, he
thought little of his injuries.
“They were almost healed when we
arrived in the Bay of Islands for some
family time and I came into contact with
my nieces and nephews and father-in-law,
who all had staph infections. Overnight,
a blister appeared over the almost-healed
knee graze, which gradually came off the
next day.
“Over the next few days, the graze
became worse, getting redder and more
tender. One day at the beach, while in
the water, I decided to lightly squeeze the
wound and got a squash ball-sized amount
of pus out of it. I exposed the wound to
the sun and regularly rinsed it in salt
water from the sea during the day and put
a potato poultice on it overnight. I was
sceptical about how successful the potatowould be – imagine getting into bed
covered in potato – but it did a great
job of pulling the infection to the sur-
face, and I saw rapid improvement.”
Despite that, Sullivan decided to get
a second opinion, given the severity
of the infection. “I went to a doctor
in Russell, who swabbed the wound
and prescribed antibiotics. Because it
was healing so fast, I decided to take
them only if things got worse. I like
to take a considered approach to anti-
biotics, given the effect they can haveon your gut microbes and the emerg-
ing threat of antibiotic resistance to
global health and food security. A few
days later, the swab came back as posi-
tive for MRSA and the doctor called
to say the antibiotics he’d prescribed
were not right for that.
“Unfortunately, while this infec-
tion was healing, a number of other
large pimple-like eruptions appeared
on my left leg and then my right leg. These
hung around for 2-3 weeks.
“At this stage, I was treating all the infec-
tions internally and externally. I was taking
high doses of vitamin C, echinacea, gold-
enseal and olive leaf, and eating a healthy
diet of organic vegetables, grains and fruit- no dairy or gluten.
“Externally, I was applying mānuka
essential oil, propolis and a sesame-based
wound-healing product called Mebo. I was
also applying the potato poultices to each
infection overnight and covering them
during the day. This would draw the pus
to the surface, and in the morning the pus
would drain in the shower. Sorry about the
graphic descriptions,” he says.
THOUSANDS OF DEATHS WORLDWIDE
“During this time, I was reading a lot ofSI
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Mike Kelly was worried
when he heard Paul
Sullivan had been
trying to treat the
infection himself. “I
was really concerned
for him, knowing
how quickly it had
floored me.”
“I like to take a
considered approach
to antibiotics, given
the effect they can
have on your gut
microbes and the
emerging threat of
antibiotic resistance
to global health and
food security.”
Paul Sullivan
Mike Kelly