Collier County, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 Albert Allison, a former Coast Guard pilot who flew rescue missions on remote Pacific islands and through Alaskan snow storms, found himself needing a lifeline last year after catching a deadly bacteria while fishing.<\/p>\n
Allison noticed something was wrong while watching TV at home. He felt a pain in his calf and discovered what appeared to be a tiny bruise.<\/p>\n
“I’m sitting here watching TV and I felt this pain in my calf\u2026And I looked at it\u2026and it was a tiny little bruise,” Allison said.<\/p>\n
The little bruise turned out to be Vibrio vulnificus, a flesh-eating bacteria that quickly grew and landed him in the hospital for weeks. Doctors saved his leg and his life.<\/p>\n
“It was painful in the beginning, especially it was very painful,” Allison said.<\/p>\n
Dr. Valerie Harwood studies water microbiology at the University of South Florida. She says Vibrio is a naturally-occurring bacteria found in warm, brackish waters.<\/p>\n
“It is everywhere, and it’s at high levels in warm water,” Harwood said.<\/p>\n
The bacteria can be dangerous for people with underlying conditions like heart or liver problems. Infections can start through a cut coming in contact with the water or consuming undercooked seafood.<\/p>\n
“If it continues, the infection continues and causes septicemia or blood poisoning, that’s when your risk of dying is close to 50%,” Harwood said.<\/p>\n
The close call is keeping the 89-year-old airman on high alert. His decades-long career included flying rescue missions in some of the world’s most challenging conditions.<\/p>\n
“Be careful, because it’s out there. It’s everywhere,” Allison said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collier County, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 Albert Allison, a former Coast Guard pilot who flew rescue missions on remote…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[164177,50307,164181,164174,209,211,210,49660,164175,28,897,58761,54942,129403,164183,7970,164176,164179,7976,164178,807,164184,164182,3650,164180],"class_list":["post-414363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-albert-allison","tag-biology","tag-blood-poisoning","tag-branches-of-biology","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-cut","tag-flesh","tag-florida","tag-fort-myers","tag-guard","tag-infection","tag-infections","tag-little-bruise","tag-medicine","tag-necrotizing-fasciitis","tag-pacific-islands","tag-pain","tag-septicemia","tag-south-florida","tag-tiny-bruise","tag-tiny-little-bruise","tag-university-of-south-florida","tag-valerie-harwood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}