At 25, Vanessa Carter was in a devastating car crash in Johannesburg. It broke every bone on the right side of her face and set her on a years-long journey through multiple reconstructive surgeries.
Six years on, Carter received a prosthetic implant to reconstruct her cheekbone. Perhaps the worst of her ordeal was over. But one day, she noticed some pus seeping from her face. It was an infection. And for nearly a year, it wouldn't go away.
"I was taking antibiotics, I was seeing my doctors, but nobody could give me answers," she told DW. "And all this time this bacterial infection was basically eating away at the tissue on my face."
Many antibiotics don't work on MRSA bacteria anymore — strains have become resistantImage: IMAGE POINT FR/BSIP/picture allianceThe culprit, it turns out, was MRSA — methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus — one of a growing number of superbugs against which antibiotics have stopped working.
A looming global crisis with 10 million deaths per year
