11-08-2025
‘I nearly died after my cracked tooth caused a brain abscess'
What started as excitement for a day trip to Wales became a medical nightmare when Graham Bell's face began swelling just as he and his wife prepared to leave their home in mid-March.
Graham's wife Sue immediately noticed something was seriously wrong – her husband's face was visibly swollen and he complained of severe headaches. Instead of heading to Wales, the Liverpool couple rushed to hospital, where tests revealed a shocking diagnosis.
Graham (61) had developed a 3cm brain abscess, a dangerous condition where pus builds up in brain tissue due to bacterial infection. Even more surprising was the source – a cracked tooth he'd been living with, completely unaware it was harbouring a deadly infection.
'It was bizarre because I had no pain or swelling in my mouth to tell me there was something wrong,' Graham recalls. 'My clinical team worked to understand what was going on and found that the infection had actually come from an infection in a cracked tooth I had.'
The diagnosis hit him hard. 'It was a lot of information to take in a short time,' he says. 'I had the family around me, but I think we were all in a bit of shock. I wasn't well, so finding out what was going on quickly was key for all of us.'
Graham's ordeal was far from over. He required emergency surgery to drain the abscess, but complications arose when he developed sepsis.
'I was rushed back into surgery to drain the abscess again and they gave me high doses of antibiotics to help tackle the infection,' he explains.
After six weeks in hospital, Graham is slowly on the road to recovery, though challenges remain. 'It's early days and his latest review in July was encouraging,' his wife says.
'He still has issues with communicating and moving around, but we're following the therapy and on our way to getting back to as close to normal as possible.'
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