{"id":693232,"date":"2026-07-15T15:52:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/693232\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T15:52:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:52:21","slug":"woman-lost-half-her-bum-and-privates-after-eating-meal-on-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/693232\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman lost half her bum and privates after eating meal on date"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mum ended up with a flesh-eating bug that ate away at her bum and private parts after eating shrimp on a date night. <\/p>\n

Lacey Pepper, 47, first noticed something was wrong when she began to feel unwell<\/a> and achy while driving home from a work trip but put it down to the long journey. <\/p>\n

However, within four days things had worsened and she had developed a fever, began throwing up and could barely walk. <\/p>\n

When her daughter spotted a blistering rash on her leg, Lacey initially dismissed it as a boil but the next day she was unable to walk so visited her doctor who told her to go to hospital. <\/p>\n

At the hospital, Lacey was told to immediately go to the emergency department where she fell unconscious for three days and her family were told she had contracted the flesh-eating bug<\/a> necrotising fasciitis and warned there was a high chance she wouldn\u2019t survive.<\/p>\n

\"LaceyLacey Pepper contracted a deadly flesh-eating bacteria (Kennedy News and Media)<\/p>\n

Lacey had to be rushed into surgery to remove the dead flesh from her left leg, crotch and backside.<\/p>\n

This resulted in her losing around 25 percent of her left buttock, percent of the left side of her intimate area and 25 percent of her upper thigh.<\/p>\n

Lacey, from Brookhaven in Mississippi<\/a>, said: “I remember going to get a CT scan and I don’t remember anything after that.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been told that the doctor said it wasn’t looking good [and that] I might not live. I might lose my leg and I might die.<\/p>\n

“They did surgery on me and told my sister I had a flesh-eating bacteria and I had to be flown to another hospital.”<\/p>\n

Over the next two months, Lacey underwent a further 17 operations to try and rebuild the skin on her leg and even had to learn how to walk again. <\/p>\n

she ate a week before while on a date night with her partner might be to blame. <\/p>\n

\"SheShe had to under more than a dozen surgeries (Kennedy News and Media)<\/p>\n

Two years on from the experience, Lacey is speaking out to raise awareness of the flesh-eating bug and urging anyone who has symptoms similar to hers to get them checked out. <\/p>\n

The potentially-fatal bacteria can be contracted via minor cuts, insect bites or even raw or undercooked seafood.<\/p>\n

Lacey said she didn\u2019t have any cuts or bites at the time and suspects that a fried shrimp meal <\/p>\n

She said: I remember when they told me thinking ‘where did I get this from?’ I don’t get in water. I don’t even swim.<\/p>\n

“I have no idea where I got it from. the doctors don’t know. I didn’t have any cuts on my body.<\/p>\n

\"SheShe even had to learn to walk again following her surgeries (Kennedy News and Media)<\/p>\n

“I ate some shrimp while I was in Maryland with my boyfriend a week before I fell ill.<\/p>\n

“You can get necrotising fasciitis from shellfish, but it could’ve been from anything.<\/p>\n

“I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. I’m very particular about everything I do now.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been left with a big scar and I’m still living with the after effects. I use a cane to walk with.<\/p>\n

“If you get a boil, or anything you’re concerned about, just go to the doctors.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mum ended up with a flesh-eating bug that ate away at her bum and private parts after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55,1384],"class_list":["post-693232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}