Man contracted a flesh-eating bacteria after walking on South Carolina beach

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Brent Norman has spent his whole life near the ocean.

"I've grown up on beaches all my life and stepped on probably over 10,000 shells," Norman said.

At the end of April, he walked his usual route on Sullivan’s Island and Isle of Palms in South Carolina.

"Health-wise, I try to hit 15 to 20,000 steps every day," Norman said. "The way the tides were pretty high, I unfortunately stepped on several seashells."

Norman started to feel pain in his right foot in the following days.

"Fast forward to Wednesday, swelling on my right foot had grown even more. And then at that point, I was no longer walking," Norman said.

Norman described the pain "as if someone had driven up out of a nail through my foot."

After nearly a week of toughing it out, he went to the emergency room on Thursday.

"Everyone behind the check-in counter, their eyes were about double the size they normally were," Norman said. "I could tell people were uncomfortable sitting around me looking at it."

That's when Norman’s doctor told him his foot was infected with Vibrio, most likely from stepping on a seashell.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says there are 12 species of vibrio, and one is known to be a flesh-eating bacteria.

"She lanced it, removed the debris from in there, and then they gave me an antibiotic shot and then also pills that I'm taking for two weeks," Norman said.

According to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), Vibrio are a kind of bacteria that naturally live in warm ocean water.

The agency says there are typically higher concentrations of the bacteria in the ocean from May to October.

According to the CDC, 150 to 200 infections like Norman’s are reported yearly.

The CDC says one in five people with this infection die, sometimes within one to two days of becoming ill, making Norman a rare case.

Norman is on antibiotics and is still recovering, and is already itching to get back to the sand.

"My reward is living at the beach and I intend to continue to do that, as soon as my foot is healed, I will be back on the beach," Norman said.

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