Man has legs amputated after bite from dog that killed his brother gets infected

Family say they were told infected dog was well trained

Mark Day, 61 at his home in Colchester after his operation (James Linsell-Clark/SWNS)

A man had to get both his legs amputated after developing sepsis from a dog bite.

Mark Day, 62, developed sepsis after he was “nipped” by his American Akita on the day of the funeral of his brother-in-law, who died after a bite from the same dog.

Three days after the bite Mr Day suffered cardiac arrest and multiple organ failure and had to be resuscitated twice after he was admitted to hospital.

Mr Day, an ex-builder from Colchester in Essex, was diagnosed with a bacterial pathogen – capnocytophaga canimorsus – that doctors said was caused by a dog bite.

His dog, Ted, was put down on the same day on doctors' orders.

The infected dog had weeks earlier bitten Mr Day's brother-in-law Barry Harris, 46, who developed sepsis and died from a cardiac arrest.

Mr Harris had bought the two-year-old dog – described as a “giant teddy bear” – from a Facebook seller in London last May.

Akita Ted was put down (Pauline Day/SWNS)

The seller said Ted was well trained but Mr Harris later found that the dog did not respond when called by name, his family said.

Mr Day said he had been rewarding Ted with a dog treat when the bite took place.

He said: “Ted had been really good so I gave him a treat and was telling him he's a good boy.

”He had his head back loving the attention and then he just opened his mouth and put it around my hand.

“Ted didn't even bite me. He just broke the skin on both sides.”

Mr Day, who now has eight-inch stumps below each knee, said he did not realise he had been infected until three days after being bitten, at first thinking he had a hangover from the wake.

He was admitted to hospital on 22 August. He was later transferred to Broomfield Hospital, where he celebrated his 62nd birthday and 20th wedding anniversary with wife Pauline, before undergoing his amputation on 2 November.

Barry Harris died from Ted’s bite (Pauline Day/SWNS)

He was discharged from hospital later that month – 82 days after first being admitted – and expects to get prosthetic legs in the next couple of months.

Friends of Mr Day are trying to raise £5,000 to send him on a ”holiday he deserves“ with his wife.

They also want to raise enough to fund adaptations to their friend's car so that he can return to driving.

Additional reporting by SWNS