Texas Flesh-eating Bacteria Kills, and Strikes Again

The Vibrio bacteria that's turned especially nasty this summer has taken the life of Dr. Kenneth Dean Creamer, one of the Texas fishermen who was infected on July 15th while wade-fishing in Port O’Connor Bay. His fishing buddy has been released after three weeks of treatment. According to the Texas Department of Health, Creamer is the seventh Vibrio vulnificus-related death in Texas this year.

Now a teenager has been infected while fishing in Texas City, after he cut his ankle last Wednesday. After treating it for a couple of days with Neosporin, the pain and spreading infection prompted Brent Abbott to get to the hospital for treatment. "Doctors at Mainland Medical Center in Texas City admitted Abbott immediately and started high doses of three different kinds of antibiotics. Abbott was also given medication to help ease the pain he was experiencing in his leg," reported the Texas City Sun. Abbott shared some common sense: " “All I can say is if you wade fish and you cut yourself and it gets infected, go see a doctor. I know a lot of people don’t want to go to the hospital, but this is nothing to fool around with.”

For more info on what it's like to struggle against and survive a life-threatening necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating) bacterial infection, read Vance "Bo" Salisbury's own story. His ordeal started when he got bumped on the ankle during a soccer game.