A DEADLY flesh-eating bacteria left Martin Smith critically ill and suffering with chronic pain so severe he considered suicide – before being cured last year with groundbreaking technology at a hospital in Southampton.

In 2011 Martin Smith, 53, from Poole, was working in India when he was infected with necrotising fasciitis – a bacterial skin infection which kills half of its victims.

The systems engineer, however, did not realise there was a problem until he arrived in Hong Kong for his next assignment.

He woke to find one of his thighs had swollen to double its normal size and was suffering with a high fever – prompting medics to rush him to hospital where he was pumped with antibiotics.

“All I remember is being bundled into the ambulance,” said Mr Smith.

“That next week is just a blur, it was a nightmare.”

The father-of-two recovered from the bug but during the treatment process, lymph nodes and nerve clusters were destroyed in his right side, which caused him chronic pain.

He compared the agony to having shards of glass running through him from his hip to his groin.

Martin then spent the intervening years desperately searching for something to alleviate his pain.

“It became so bad that I considered taking my own life,” said Mr Smith.

“I wasn’t able to do anything.

"I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t get about – it was hell.”

But in July last year, Mr Smith was referred to Spire Southampton Hospital, where he had a Spinal Modulation Axium Neurostimulator System implanted.

This involved Mr Smith being woken up mid-surgery, something he described as “surreal”, as the surgeon asked for his responses as his spinal cord was stimulated.

The device installed provides targeted stimulation to a neural structure that branches off the spinal cord, called the Dorsal Root Ganglion.

Since then he has seen a steady improvement in his pain.

He is also losing the weight he gained due to the medication.

Martin has now made his first unaccompanied trip overseas since he was struck down by the illness, travelling to Korea.

“The pain is down 50 per cent and now I’m back at work,” said Mr Smith.

“It has given me my life back.”