Father given 12 hours left to live after contracting hepatitis B in freak accident
The Independent A healthy man says he was given 12 hours to live after contracting hepatitis B through an infected nail.
David Surtees was working a typical day delivering palettes of fruit and vegetables to schools in York when he scratched his hand on a nail.
At first he didnt think anything of it, but in the weeks that followed he found himself exhausted and started arriving late for work every day after accidentally sleeping in.
I ended up leaving the job because I was too tired and couldnt do it anymore, Mr Surtees said.
Within four to five weeks of scratching his hand, he found himself unable to work at all and the 51-year-old became exhausted even while at home.
He spent another month or so sleeping between 15 to 16 hours a day but because he was living alone, no one was there to recognise his condition was deteriorating.
Mr Surtees said a friend saved his life when he knocked on his door one day and saw his skin had turned yellow.
You look awful, the friend told him and drove him to his GP.
As soon as the receptionist saw me, she called the doctor immediately, he said. Then a doctor looked at me and told me to go to the hospital right away.
