A Texas woman has died after she contracted a flesh-eating bacteria, possibly from eating raw oysters.
KLFY-TV reports that Jeanette LeBlanc was visiting friends and family in Louisiana back in September when she ate about two dozen raw oysters from a local market.
“About 36 hours later she started having extreme respiratory distress, had a rash on her legs and everything,” Vicki Bergquist told the news station.
They initially thought it was an allergic reaction, but LeBlanc’s condition quickly worsened as the wounds on her legs became more severe. She was hospitalized for three weeks after doctors diagnosed her with vibrio.
People are infected with vibrio after eating raw or under-cooked shellfish, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
LeBlanc was unable to overcome the infection, and died on Oct. 15, 2017. Now her family is sharing her story, hoping to prevent other deaths from happening.
“If we had known that the risk was so high, I think she would’ve stopped eating oysters,” Bergquist told KLFY.
CDC estimates that vibriosis causes 80,000 illnesses each year in the United States. About 52,000 of the illnesses are estimated to be the result of eating contaminated food.
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