Peter Watts blogs from near-death experience with flesh-eating bacteria

Science fiction writer Peter Watts can't catch a break. After being brutally beaten without provocation by US customs guards last year and then charged with a felony, he's now contracted "flesh-eating bacteria" (that is, necrotising fasciitis) in his leg after a routine skin biopsy in a Toronto hospital. He came close to dying, and ended up having a huge piece of his calf removed, leaving his leg an "open canyon" with the muscles bare to the environment (and yes, Peter has posted pictures). He's in hospital now, and blogging it with a combination of scientific dispassion (he's got a PhD in biology) and auctorial vividness.

My doctor keeps jamming on his commitment to fork over the shots he took in surgery, the ones showing the necrotic tissue spreading across my leg. Fuck it; I've kept you waiting too long (only partially due to the above reason, granted; I'm also still comatose for a good chunk of the day), and I would be remiss in my educational mandate if I put this off any longer.

But I also seem to remember the occasional squeap from 'crawlers who implored me not to present these epic photos, protests that the mere sight of (let's be honest) such ultimate beefcake shots might provoke reactions too visceral for mere mortals to withstand while retaining their cookies. In deference to such candy-asses I will invoke, for the first time ever, this little "Behind the cut" option that hides the rest of the post from the squeamish.

Get well, Peter. We're all rooting for you. A word of caution: the photo above is not representative of the extreme gore in Peter's "Moving Pictures" post, which is not for the faint of stomach.

Flesh Eating Fest 11