Mum left fighting for her life with flesh-eating bacteria caught after swim

A mum is fighting for her life and her leg after a brush with flesh-eating bacteria during what she thought was a carefree swimwith her daughter.

Genevieve Gallagher, 49, from Florida, had taken seven-year-old Mila for a dip in Santa Rosa Sound off Pensacola Beach in late July. Within days, she was in hospital with catastrophic damage to her left leg. At first it felt like a minor illness, the mum said, but at work three days later, she began sweating, felt weak and noticed her leg swelling with blisters. Hours later, she was on an operating table. "I thought I had an infection, but never did I think I had a flesh-eating bacterium," she said. "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."

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Surgeons began cutting away vast sections of flesh to stop the spread of Vibrio vulnificus, the rare but deadly bacteria she had picked up from the water. "They debrided my leg down to the bare meat," she said. "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."

Genevieve believes the infection crept in through a small cut. The ordeal quickly spiralled - septic shock set in, her organs failed and doctors warned her family she might not survive. "They were finally able to get me stable enough to wake me up. Sacred Heart saved my leg, thank God."

Even then, the emotional toll hit hard, as Genevieve's daughter, Mila saw her in the hospital and told her: "I wish this happened to me and not you." The mum recalled: "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."

Genevieve was transferred to UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville, where she has endured multiple operations. Muscle was removed from her back and grafted onto exposed bone in her leg, but blood clots forced the graft to fail.

"Just looking at my leg, it doesn't even look like my leg anymore," she said. "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 expects to remain in hospital for weeks, with more surgeries to come. "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. I've been strong through it all, but it's been a lot mentally, emotionally and physically."

Vibrio vulnificus thrives in warm seawater. Florida's health department warns swimmers to avoid the ocean with open cuts - and though infections remain rare, the consequences can be devastating. So far in 2025, Florida has logged 23 cases and five deaths. Last year the total reached 82.