Woman Needs Leg Amputated After Scratch While Swimming Leads to Flesh Eating Infection

A Florida Woman needed her leg amputated after what seemed to be an innocuous scratch developed into a potentially deadly infection.

Speaking to the Tampa Bay Times, Debbie King, 72, from Homosassa, 60 miles north of Tampa, said that she was  swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, and scraped her shin while getting back into her friend’s boat on August 13. .

Her friend bandaged the wound, but it became red and sore the following day, and only got worse three days later.

Kingwas rushed to the emergency room, where doctors recognized a vibrio vulnificus infection—a fatal condition if left untreated. According to her account, doctors told her husband that her only option was to amputate the limb. 

The first amputation landed below the knee, but the infection had progressed further than doctors had hoped, necessitating a second amputation, followed by a four-day stay in the critical care unit with sepsis, a potentially deadly immune response to an infection. 

King is now recovering out of the hospital, performing physical therapy to strengthen her remaining limbs, and working towards being able to walk again with the help of a prosthetic leg. 

The vibrio vulnificus bacteria was responsible for at least five deaths this summer, prompting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a warning about the bacteria in warm, East Coast waters — such as the Gulf of Mexico. 

Most people fall ill by eating uncooked or improperly handled shellfish, but it is also possible to contract the bacteria from an open wound coming into contact with contaminated, brackish water. 

The bacteria have become more common as waters warm over time. 

“The Vibrio have moved from the equatorial coastal regions all the way up to the northern latitudes, which is a concern, but it's not a concern that it's going to create a pandemic, so there's no need for the public to panic,” Antarpreet Jutla, Ph.D., associate professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Florida, previously told The Messenger. 

You can protect yourself by not swimming when you have an open wound, knowing the signs and symptoms of an infection, including redness and swelling near the wound, and exercising even more caution after a big hurricane or storm, as the wet conditions make surrounding waters even more habitable to the bacteria.