“It feels like somebody took gasoline, poured it on my leg, and lit [it] on fire,” Genevieve Gallagher, 49, said of contracting the bacteria known as Vibrio vulnificus
NEED TO KNOW
- A woman in Florida was warned she could lose her leg or even die after contracting a flesh-eating bacteria following a local beach swim
- Genevieve Gallagher, 49, contracted Vibrio vulnificus after swimming with her 7-year-old daughter in Santa Rosa Sound off Pensacola Beach
- “The pain is unbelievable. It feels like somebody took gasoline, poured it on my leg, and lit my leg on fire,” Gallagher, who has had to have multiple surgeries, said.
A Florida mom was warned by doctors that she might die or lose her leg after contracting a flesh-eating bacteria following a swim near a local beach.
On July 27, Genevieve Gallagher, 49, of Pensacola, went for a swim with her 7-year-old daughter, Mila, in Santa Rosa Sound off Pensacola Beach, per the Pensacola News Journal newspaper.
Gallagher and her husband, Dana, had gone boating behind the Pensacola Beach Boardwalk, before she and her daughter decided to go for a dip near Quietwater Beach, the outlet noted.
Three days later, on July 30, Gallagher started to experience symptoms of an infection, including sweats. Her leg also swelled and bubbled with blisters, so she was rushed into surgery that afternoon, and she learned she’d contracted the flesh-eating bacteria known as Vibrio vulnificus…