Ocean City, Md. — A woman says a trip to a Maryland beach left her son covered in wounds from flesh-eating bacteria. The Daily Times of Salisbury reports Brittany Carey says her son went swimming off the coast of Ocean City last week and had red spots all over his body by the next morning.
Carey wrote about the infection on Facebook on Saturday and shared photos of the wounds. She says Peninsula Regional Health System physicians have diagnosed her son with Vibrio.
The news comes after a Pennsylvania man says his 77-year-old mother died after being infected with similar bacteria when she scraped her leg at a Florida beach. According to her son, Wade Fleming, Lynn Fleming was walking along the beach when she fell and suffered a small cut.
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“She didn’t know that there was a small ditch there and she stumbled and hit the embankment on the other side,” Wade Fleming told “CBS This Morning” this week. “She had a small little ¾-inch long cut on her shin bone.”
In the days following her fall in the water, Lynn’s condition worsened. She was rushed to the emergency room by ambulance and was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, a rare but deadly bacterial infection that kills the body’s soft tissue.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Vibrio bacteria can be found in coastal waterways. It warns people to keep salt or brackish water away from wounds. The CDC calls necrotizing fasciitis “a very serious illness that requires care in a hospital” and makes clear the infection can spread rapidly and that it requires urgent surgery.
