Summary A rare bacteria in the Gulf of Mexico has left a woman fighting for her life.
NAPLES (Associated Press) — WBBH NBC-2 (http://bit.ly/18RvzzI) reports that 84-year-old Margaret Freiwald was swimming near Tampa when she cut her leg while boating. Then she went on vacation in Collier County and became gravely ill.
She s now in the intensive care unit at a hospital in Naples. The infection was so aggressive that doctors were forced to amputate her leg.
Doctors told the family that Freiwald came in contact with a bacterium called vibrio vulnificus. The infection has also attacked her internal organs; she suffered kidney failure and had a heart attack.
Health experts say the virus can thrive in any warm saltwater body across the country.
