Warning: Disturbing images follow
A Florida family is warning residents to look out after the patriarch was infected with a flesh-eating bacteria that left him sporting injuries on his leg.
We've recently covered mutant deer, zombie squirrels, and Frankenstein rabbits, but it's not just the rest of the animal kingdom battling rare infections. If you weren't already worried about a California resident catching the Plague from a bug bite, we're now warned about Florida residents contracting a flesh-eating bacteria from the water.
38-year-old Ben West contracted Vibrio Vulnificus when he went crabbing and mullet fishing in Port St. Joe.
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A GoFundMe page and news reports explain how West became confused and disoriented after three days. When rushed to the hospital, it was confirmed that he'd been infected with Vibrio Vulnificus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms that while cases of Vibrio Vulnificus are rare, they can kill within days. Vibrio bacteria thrive in coastal waters, which include saltwater and brackish water. Brackish water is a cocktail of salt and freshwater that's typically found when a river meets the ocean.
There are 80,000 cases of general vibriosis every year in the USA, with 52,000 of these being associated with eating contaminated food like oysters. It's when someone contracts Vibrio Vulnificus that you really need to worry. The CDC reminds us: "Many people with Vibrio vulnificus infection can get seriously ill and need intensive care or limb amputation. About 1 in 5 people with this infection die, sometimes within a day or two of becoming ill."
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Speaking to WHJG, fiancée Janie Knowles explained how events unfolded when West was infected: "Big blisters started popping up, like it was trying to leave the leg, it was just at the ankle, coming up to the back side of the leg, to the calf, he said ‘it’s the most excruciating pain I’ve ever felt in my life."
Janie said that West's leg continued swelling with blisters that kept bursting, and as it grew to four times the size of his other leg, you couldn't recognize the limb.
Ben's father, Keith West, added: "I have learned what it means to pray without ceasing, it really has, it’s been a battle."
He continued: "The hardest part so far is watching him be in that bed helpless, not knowing if he’s going to live or die, right now in particular, not knowing if he’s going to get to keep that part of his leg or not, the foot, the leg, from the knee down."
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West's leg tissue has apparently been affected similarly to a third-degree burn, while his kidneys and liver were also failing due to the infection. After having two surgeries, doctors have drained fluids from his leg, although he still has three more operations to come.
Warning others about the dangers of swimming and potentially contracting Vibrio Vulnificus, Keith West concluded: "When I tell you that this disease, if you’re wrong, it will kill you, it will kill your relatives, it will kill your loved ones, and you’re going to have to make up your own mind if it’s worth it."
The Florida Department of Health at Bay County released a health advisory notice of possible fecal bacterial contamination around the Port St. Joe shoreline, relating it to a recent sewage spill.
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A no-swim advisory was issued to residents and visitors in the area, although it notes contamination of enterococci bacteria that isn't related to Vibrio Vulnificus.