A gym-goer has been forced to have his forearm amputated after a bicep curl accident went horribly wrong and led to a flesh-eating bug infection.
Gabriel McKenna-Lieschke, from Adelaide in Australia, was working out with a 50kg weight when suddenly his bicep ripped off his elbow leaving him ‘screaming in pain’.
The 29-year-old said his arm swelled up to ‘three times the thickness’ and turned ‘bright red’ after surgery at the hospital to reattach the muscle.
But he was soon rushed back to hospital fighting for his life, and his family feared the worst after he was placed in an induced coma.
Gabriel then woke up from his coma to be told he had lost his lower left arm because of a deadly flesh-eating bug.
But he is now determined to grow his fitness, and has his sights set on the Paris Paralympics in 2024 – 18 months on from the accident.
The civil engineering student has raised $3,180 AUD (£1,794.97) for prosthetics, cycling equipment and rehabilitation on his GoFundMe page.
Recalling the time of the accident Gabriel said: ‘My dad was calling my friends and family because they’d told him they thought I was going to die, then it was a big surprise to everyone when I pulled through.’
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He claims he didn’t realise he had lost his limb for three days.
‘I wasn’t making any sense, I was put into an induced coma for 10 days,’ he said.
‘The main infection started attacking my lower arm before where my bicep was. The first amputation was below the elbow. I’ve partially avoided some of those details.
‘They then went above the elbow and had to debride [remove] the dead skin on my chest and my arm.
‘I was asleep for the whole thing. I had no idea what was going on and when I woke up, I didn’t even realise I’d lost my arm for three days.’
Instead of letting the amputation get the better of him, Gabriel has used this moment to look towards a positive future.
He added: ‘I’ve had a fairly long history of bad mental health. I got on top of it a year prior to losing my arm.
‘I was really in a good spot and I was really happy, I knew how hard it was to get back from nothing.
‘I’m glad I was in a position where I could tackle it head on because for me it was either it’s time to get on with it – get on with your life or basically kill yourself.
‘My first thought was it was going to send me back into a hole of depression, but I thought “this is the ultimate challenge”. I relished it as a challenge of self-improvement.
‘To see that amazing progress from hard work is incredibly motivating.
‘When I look back at what I’ve been through, I feel very proud of myself.
‘I feel extremely grateful more than anything that I have another chance at life, have the support of my family and friends and that I’m from a country where I’m able to pursue a dream like going to the Paralympics.’
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