Man Contracts Flesh-Eating Bacteria After Getting a Scratch at Popular Vacation Destination

Flesh-eating bacteria entered Brian Roush's body through a scratch on his ankle

NEED TO KNOW

• Brian Roush, 62, was celebrating in the Bahamas with his girlfriend over New Year’s, when he scraped his ankle
• He became ill once he returned home to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and doctors immediately suspected necrotizing fasciitis, known as flesh-eating disease
• He was given a 10% chance of survival

After scraping his ankle on vacation in the Bahamas, a Florida man ended up with a devastating case of the flesh-eating disease — and doctors gave him just 10% chance of surviving.

Brian Roush, 62, had traveled to the islands over the New Year with his girlfriend, Tonia Buford Stinson, to celebrate recently moving in together. While there, he tripped and scraped his ankle, his daughter, Brittany Roush, told WFLA. But it was a minor injury that didn’t keep him from typical Bahamas activities, like swimming with pigs and going on waterslides.
On the way home to Fort Lauderdale on Jan. 3, “he became violently ill. Within hours, he was admitted to a hospital in Ft Lauderdale for severe septic shock, was intubated, and placed on a ventilator,” a GoFundMe established by Brittany to help support Roush's recovery, explains. 

The disease moved quickly. As Brittany told WFLA, “his ankle erupted into blisters” at the emergency room. Doctors immediately suspected necrotizing fasciitis — commonly known as flesh-eating disease — which causes tissue to die immediately.

Her father was rushed into emergency surgery, where doctors removed the diseased tissue, but at this point, he’d gone into sepsis, the potentially fatal immune response to an infection.

“Sepsis was wreaking havoc. Brian’s liver, kidneys, and lungs failed while he was in septic shock and he was placed in an induced coma on life support,” the GoFundMe explains. “His ankle became gangrenous, and most of the flesh from his ankle to his lower calf had to be removed down to the bone.”

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Doctors had given him just 10% chance of surviving. But “miraculously, after a week of nonstop antibiotics and life support, he cleared the infection and his lungs and liver began to recover,” the GoFundMe explains.

However, Roush is not in the clear, as he needs to be transferred to a long-term care facility to re-learn how to walk and use his limbs.

“He is doing his best to maintain a positive attitude despite waking up to this nightmare,” the GoFundMe explains, joking about how he's “lavishing compliments on the nursing staff so they keep the ice water flowing.”

Necrotizing fasciitis is rare — but the steps you can take to minimize your chances of getting it are the same as you would to prevent any infection, Cleveland Clinic explains. You should clean any wound with soap and water, and keep it covered with a clean bandage — and avoid swimming pools, hot tubs, or any bodies of water, like the ocean, with a break in your skin.

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