Man Loses Both Legs After Being Attacked by Brother-in-Law's Dog

A grandfather has had both of his legs amputated after being bitten by a pet dog and contracting sepsis—a month after the same animal scratched his brother-in-law, leaving him with a fatal infection.

Mark Day, 62, was bitten by his brother-in-law's American Akita Ted, on the day of the 46-year-old's funeral.

Barry Harris, from Colchester, England, had bought the animal for £1,500 ($2,000) on Facebook in May. He died in July.

Day told the Mirror he had no idea that his brother-in-law had been killed by the same dog, recalling how he quickly developed a fever and his legs felt like "blocks of ice" shortly after he was bitten by Ted on a morning walk.

The grandfather said blood tests showed the sepsis infection had been caused by the bite from Ted.

Day's wife, Pauline, told the BBC his chest "looked like a purple bruise."

"It's surreal. I haven't really had time to process it all, to grieve for my brother and now my husband faces this," Pauline Day said last month.

She described the Akita dog, which has since been put down, as a "big playful doofus of a dog, a teddy bear, who was nervous of everything," but "would snap at you if you went near his food."

Day told the Mirror he was in a coma for 10 days. When he woke up, his feet "were black almost a third of the way up."

"I didn't know whether it was going to keep coming up my body," he said.

He had both of his legs amputated on November 2, as well as all of the fingers on his left hand, and two fingers on the right.

The 62-year-old is yet to get his prosthetic legs, but said he hopes that will happen within six months.

"I'm fairly pragmatic. It is what it is," he said. "There are things I want to do still. I want to take my granddaughter for a walk and... go fishing."

His wife told the BBC people should educate themselves on the symptoms of sepsis.

Sepsis is a life-threatening medical emergency that affects roughly 1.7 million in the U.S. every year, causing more than 250,000 deaths, according to a 2019 analysis.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three patients who dies in hospital has sepsis. The agency notes that sepsis can quickly lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death without timely treatment.

Symptoms include a high heart rate or low blood pressure, confusion or disorientation, shortness of breath, fever, shivering, or feeling very cold, extreme pain or discomfort, and clammy or sweaty skin.