A Florida mom nearly lost her life and leg to gnarly flesh-eating bacteria after taking a swim at a local beach, according to a report.
Genevieve Gallagher, 49, remains hospitalized after she contracted the “Vibrio vulnificus” bacteria while swimming with her 7-year-old daughter, Mila, in Santa Rosa Sound off Pensacola Beach in late July, the Pensacola News Journal reported.
Three days after the swim, while at work, Gallagher began to show concerning symptoms, including sweating, feeling unwell, and having her leg swell and bubble with blisters, she recalled to the local publication.
She was rushed into emergency surgery later that afternoon, the outlet reported.
“I thought I had an infection, but never did I think I had a flesh-eating bacterium,” Gallagher told the Journal.
“There’s no antibiotics that they can give you to stop it. They just have to get out any infected skin and tissue. They’ve got to get it off your body.”
The discovery led doctors to begin a grueling process of removing most of the tissue on her left leg below her knee to stop the flesh-eating bacteria from progressing, she said.
“They debrided my leg down to the bare meat,” Gallagher said from her hospital bed.
“They took most of the muscle, almost down to the bone, basically. It went up almost to my knee, so it’s a pretty large amount, and it’s all the way around my leg.”
Gruesome photos obtained by the outlet show Gallagher’s leg, which is covered in swaths of decaying flesh.
She believes the bacteria entered her body from a small cut on her left leg.
The mom went into septic shock after arriving in the hospital, causing her organs to fail.
While Gallagher was intubated and medical staff attended to her wounds, her family was warned that she could not just lose her leg but also die from the illness.
“They were finally able to get me stable enough to wake me up. Sacred Heart saved my leg, thank God,” Gallagher said.
“Mila saw me in the hospital and said, ‘I wish this happened to me and not you,’ and I started crying. That broke my heart. I was like ‘Mila, no, I’m so glad it didn’t happen to you. Your little body could not have taken all this that’s going on’,” the tearful mother recalled.
Gallagher is currently in treatment at UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville, where doctors are helping her through a grueling recovery.
The 49-year-old coordinator of a physician practice has had several surgeries since then, including having muscle removed from her back and placed on exposed bone on her leg. The surgery failed due to blood clots, and she will have to undergo another, the outlet reported.
“Just looking at my leg, it doesn’t even look like my leg anymore,” Gallagher described.
“It looks deformed right now. The pain is unbelievable. It feels like somebody took gasoline, poured it on my leg, and lit my leg on fire. That’s what it feels like,” she said.
Gallagher will remain in the hospital for another two to three weeks of treatment.
“It’s been a lot on me and my family. My husband drives to Shands [hospital] every weekend and stays with me because my mental health has just been horrible,” she said.
“I’ve been strong through it all, but it’s been a lot mentally, emotionally and physically,” she said.
Vibrio vulnificus bacteria typically live in warm seawater environments, according to the Florida Department of Health.
The bacterium is naturally occurring, but infections remain rare, the department said.
The authority still warned swimmers not to enter the water if they have any fresh cuts or scrapes.
There have been 23 reported cases of the bacteria infecting individuals in Florida, and five deaths in 2025 alone.
In 2024, there were 82 reported cases, data shows.
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