{"id":253655,"date":"2025-07-10T14:08:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T14:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/253655\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T14:08:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T14:08:15","slug":"dad-had-to-have-leg-amputated-after-home-pedicure-went-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/253655\/","title":{"rendered":"Dad had to have leg amputated after home pedicure went wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 57-year-old decided to soak his feet in a bath of salt-waterNeil Shaw<\/strong><\/a> Assistant Editor (Money and Lifestyle)<\/p>\n

09:29, 10 Jul 2025Updated 09:29, 10 Jul 2025<\/p>\n

\"OlubiyiOlubiyi Jibowu in hospital before having his leg amputated<\/p>\n

A dad who gave himself a pedicure at home had to have his leg amputated when the treatment went wrong. Olubiyi Jibowu ran a bath, added Himalayan salt and soaked his feet, but the 57-year-old didn\u2019t realise how hot the water was until he pulled his feet out and saw angry blisters all over them.<\/p>\n

Instead of seeing a doctor, he treated the burns himself with Dettol, hoping they would heal fast. But the skin kept peeling off, and the wound refused to close up. It eventually turned black, leaving him in excruciating pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI initially thought, these are just blisters, they\u2019ve peeled and they\u2019re a bit sore\u201d, Olubiyi said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want them to get infected, so I thought Dettol would make it better. That\u2019s what my mum used to do. She would put a drop here and there, but I kept pouring it on.<\/p>\n

\"OlubiyiOlubiyi Jibowu in hospital after having his leg amputated (Jam Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pain I can\u2019t even describe. I\u2019m a big guy, but it was just too much. The skin eventually shrivelled up and was just torn apart. It went all black. I could see the fragments of my bone structure on my feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olubiyi, who lives in London, didn\u2019t realise how damaged his feet were as his type 2 diabetes made it harder to feel pain. The condition can numb feelings in the feet and hands because high blood sugar levels over time can damage the nerves.<\/p>\n

But the dad didn\u2019t even know he had diabetes until he eventually went to the hospital. Until then, he continued walking three miles to work every day, totally unaware that the injury was turning into deadly sepsis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By the time the addiction support worker showed his foot to his boss, the infection had already set in. The dad-of-one said: \u201cThe left foot just wasn\u2019t healing. I went to work one day and showed my manager, and she sent me home immediately. I called my sister, and I was in severe pain; she could hear it in my voice that I needed urgent help. My skin was falling off.<\/p>\n

\"OlubiyiOlubiyi Jibowu in hospital before having his leg amputated<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to King\u2019s Hospital in London, and I just thought, this will pass, it will get better \u2013 and it didn\u2019t. I was in the hospital a bit longer than I thought I would be, and it was just me being wheeled around in a wheelchair. The moment I got there, I knew it was serious. It was rapidly deteriorating.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wrapped it up and pumped me full of antibiotics, but there was no healing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doctors told Olubiyi the sepsis could spread to his organs and kill him if he didn\u2019t act fast. After weeks in the hospital and endless antibiotics, he was given the shocking news that there was no choice but to amputate below the knee.<\/p>\n

The dad said: \u201cI was in a state of shock; my mind was all over the place. I didn\u2019t want the consultant who talked about that anywhere near me. I really believed there could be a better solution, not amputation straight away. I said, \u2018Are you telling me there\u2019s no plan B to turn this around?\u2019 I was just so taken aback.\u201d<\/p>\n

The life-changing operation went ahead on August 8, 2023, around one month after Olubiyi first burnt his feet. And while the procedure finally stopped the pain, it left him facing a whole new life learning to walk again on a prosthetic. He said: \u201cThe moment the amputation happened, it relieved the pain I was feeling, but I was struggling with acceptance.<\/p>\n

\"OlubiyiOlubiyi Jibowu in hospital after having his leg amputated (Jam Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, am I going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life? It was a really hard pill to swallow. I couldn\u2019t even cry. It was just life-changing. The prosthetic was a light at the end of the tunnel. After spending two months at King\u2019s, I was admitted to a prosthetic place where I had to learn how to walk again and manoeuvre myself in a wheelchair.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was intense because I had all this therapy and physios.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olubiyi spent months in rehab and still battles strange phantom limb sensations every day. Now he\u2019s urging others not to brush off small wounds \u2013 and to always get help fast, especially if they\u2019re diabetic. He said: \u201cMy brain still thinks I\u2019ve got part of my limb there. I can get phantom feelings any time of the day \u2013 I can feel the heel as if it\u2019s there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really important to get it checked out as soon as you see anything that\u2019s bloody or an open wound. The doctors have specific antibiotics that will get rid of the infection, and it\u2019s much better to let a specialist handle it. If I had had a little bit of insight, if I knew I was diabetic, it would have alleviated everything I went through. It\u2019s an adaptation, and it feels like life threw me a curveball.<\/p>\n

\"OlubiyiOlubiyi Jibowu’s infected foot (Jam Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing the amputation, I thought, poor me, how did I get here? Then I would quickly catch myself and focus on the things that are of strength, positive, rational \u2013 and just let that drive me instead of wallowing. When I think about what I went through to get to this point, it doesn\u2019t seem so bad.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be rational and positive, it\u2019s going to be okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olubiyi is now raising money<\/a> for a lighter, high-quality titanium prosthetic leg that will help him walk more comfortably, stay active and get his independence back.<\/p>\n

The funds will also help cover ongoing rehab costs so he can live without constant pain and keep working to rebuild his life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 57-year-old decided to soak his feet in a bath of salt-waterNeil Shaw Assistant Editor (Money and Lifestyle)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[8502,105,2207,1408,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-253655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-accidents","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-hospitals","11":"tag-therapy","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114829336104052596","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}