Photo: Facebook
A Florida woman has died froma flesh-eating bacteriaafter walking on the beach near her home.
Lynn Fleming, 77, was walking along Coquina Beach on Anna Maria Island, a popular destination on the Gulf of Mexico, when she fell in the water and got a small cut on her left shin just two weeks ago.
Fleming went to the doctor a few days later and got a tetanus shot and a prescription for an antibiotic, but the next day, friends found her unconscious at home. She was rushed to the emergency room and doctors diagnosed her withnecrotizing fasciitis, a very rare butdeadly flesh-eating bacterial infectionthat destroys the body’s soft tissue.
The fast-acting infection quickly spread through Fleming’s body, and she died on Friday, just two weeks after her fall.
“It seems like a Lifetime movie, really,” Wade said. “I can’t even believe it, that it’s really even happening. It’s just all happening so fast.”
“I’m still numb,”he told CBS News. You know, it’s two weeks and I lost my mother. It’s been hard.”
RELATED VIDEO: 8-Year-Old Dies From Rare Flesh-Eating Bacteria: Doctors ‘Kept Cutting and Hoping’
Fleming’s death comes in the same month that a 12-year-old girl, also in Florida,was infected with a flesh-eating bacteria. Kylei Parker, who survived after getting emergency surgery, had also swam in the Gulf of Mexico, but she was 400 miles north in Destin, Florida. The bacteria thrives in water that stays above 55 degrees year-round.
Whilenecrotizing fasciitis is rare, with just 20,000 cases in the United States each year, precautions can be taken to reduce risk. Since the bacteria enters the bloodstream through an open cut or wound, stay out of the water after getting a new injury. And get to a doctor immediately if a cut has swelling or redness, since the infection can spread quickly.
Wade said he’s sharing his mom’s story as a warning to others who may be vulnerable.
Wade’s wife Traci said that Fleming’s death is particularly heartbreaking knowing how much she enjoyed her life in Florida.
source: people.com
