Barry Keoghan Almost Lost an Arm Due to a Rare Bacteria

Barry Keoghan let us in on a wild ride he had back in 2021 – a year that threw him a curveball in the form of a rare and seriously scary infection known as necrotising fasciitis. Chatting with GQ recently, the ‘Saltburn’ sensation revisited the whole ordeal, which went down just before the cameras started rolling on his BAFTA-winning flick, ‘The Banshees Of Inisherin.’

In the interview, the 31-year-old dropped the bomb that one out of every five people hit with this nasty disease doesn’t make it out alive. He asked the doctors: “But I’m not gonna die, right?” to which they responded, “Well, we don’t know.”

Necrotising fasciitis, the culprit behind the chaos, usually kicks in from a pesky infected wound. Its nickname is ‘flesh-eating disease.’ Why? Because it damages or ‘eats up’ chunks of your body tissue.

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‘The Banshees Of Inisherin”s writer and director, Martin McDonagh, made a pre-shoot hospital pitstop to check on Keoghan. The actor recalls his arm looking like it had a party balloon inside, but he was all like, “Yeah, no worries – catch you on Tuesday.” McDonagh thought “‘Is he gonna kick the bucket, let alone make the movie?’ But I left that hospital ready to tackle the shoot.”

In the hospital bed, Keoghan got some wisdom from McDonagh: “Just remember this when you’ve been nominated for an Oscar.” Lo and behold, the man did snag an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Supporting Actor,’ sharing the stage with heavyweights Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson.