by: WESH
Posted: / Updated:
(Photo: Sarah Martinez via WESH)
CASSELBERRY, Fla. (WESH)— A Casselberry woman is recovering after she contracted a marine bacteria while on the beach last week in Sarasota.
Sarah Martinez says she cut herself shaving a few days before the trip, but said her injury had been healing nicely.
“I cut myself shaving. It had been healing nicely, so I figured it would be okay to go to the beach. Probably about 30 minutes after I got out. it started stinging around the cut. And it started swelling almost immediately,” Martinez said.
When she arrived back in Central Florida, Martinez went to South Seminole Hospital in Longwood.
Doctors initially thought she had a flesh-eating bacteria.
“It had started in my foot and had traveled all the way up my leg in just 24 hours. That was their main concern,” Martinez said.
They began treating Martinez with antibiotics and the swelling eventually started to go down.
Fortunately for Sarah, doctors determined that her infection was cellulitis, not a staph-based infection.
The streptococcal infection known as flesh-eating bacterial infection is an example of fasciitis. Cellulitis, when untreated, can spread to the deeper tissues and cause fasciitis.
“You know, if the infection had traveled, so far up my leg, it could have poisoned my blood, and I could have lost a leg,” Martinez said.
