When he went to sleep one night, Staff Sgt. Stephen Jones felt tingling in his fingers and toes and had a high fever and chills.

Sergeant Jones remembered from reading his Airman’s Manual -- and from his pre-deployment self-aid and buddy care training -- that those signs were serious. He realized he needed to seek medical attention immediately.

What Sergeant Jones thought may have been a strained leg muscle turned out to be a flesh-eating infection that could have killed him if he had not sought immediate treatment.

“If he would have come two or three days later, he may not have survived,” said Maj. (Dr.) Crystine Lee, 379th Expeditionary Medical Group general surgeon.

She treated the sergeant for necrotizing fasciitis, also known as flesh-eating bacteria. The doctor said she may have had to amputate the sergeant’s leg had he waited another 24 hours for treatment.

“I knew something was wrong,” said the fuels journeyman deployed from Cannon Air Force Base, N.M. “I knew I had to immediately take action even though I felt normal five minutes before.”

At the clinic, the staff checked his vitals and they found his white blood cell count was almost three times higher than normal. After examining his leg, the doctor spotted the problem. He had an infected blood clot in his leg.

Dr. Lee and her team immediately performed surgery on him, removing the bacterially infected tissue.

“He was being poisoned,” Dr. Lee said. She said, while rare, this kind of infection can start from a scratch, bug bite or a cut. It most commonly occurs when streptococcus bacteria enters from a wound but is not contagious.

“We’re not sure why Sergeant Jones developed his infection since he had no point of entry. His case took everyone by surprise,” Dr. Lee said.

“Especially me,” Sergeant Jones said.

Dr. Lee said Sergeant Jones was unlucky to be one of the rare cases -- but lucky to have been saved.

“Our role at the 379th Expeditionary Medical Group is to keep our warfighters fit to fight, which includes everything from preventive measures to intervention for life threatening problems,” the doctor said.

Sergeant Jones credits “all the training briefings’ for saving his life. After his ordeal, he stresses all Airmen should take self-aid and buddy care training seriously and review their Airman’s Manual regularly.