A Florida mom was left fighting for her life after contracting a flesh-eating bacterial infection at a popular Pensacola beach.
Genevieve Gallagher, 49, almost lost her leg after she was infected with vibrio vulnificus.
The mom-of-one developed the infection while swimming at Quietwater Beach along the Santa Rosa Sound on July 27.
But it wasn’t until three days later that Gallagher’s leg began to swell and she developed agonizing blisters and uncontrollable sweating.
She was quickly rushed to the emergency room and diagnosed with septic shock and went into organ failure.
Vibrio vulnificus is flesh eating bacteria that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns can lead to severe, life-threatening infections.
The Florida Department of Health confirmed 23 cases of vibrio in 2025, with five deaths as a result. There were 82 cases and 19 deaths in 2024. The CDC estimates that there are 80,000 vibrio infection cases per year in the US.
Genevieve said: ‘I thought I had an infection, but never did I think I had a flesh eating bacterium.’
Gallagher believes she was infected after going for a swim in Clearwater Beach, which she was visiting with her husband and 7-year-old daughter
Genevieve Gallagher, 49, almost lost her life because of flesh eating bacteria she contracted following a trip to the beach
Vibrio symptoms include fever, vomiting and diarrhea.
The mom was intubated for almost a week as her devastated husband Dana and daughter Mila, seven, were told to prepare for the worst.
Medics had to perform multiple surgeries to try and excavate the infection, including one where muscle from her back was shifted to her leg.
‘It feels like somebody took gasoline, poured it on my leg, and lit my leg on fire. That’s what it feels like,’ Gallagher told the Pensacola News Journal.
‘Just looking at my leg, it doesn’t even look like my leg anymore. It looks deformed right now. The pain is unbelievable.’
Gallagher thinks that the bacteria entered her body through a ‘small cut’ on her left leg, which she had a waterproof bandage on.
Vibrio vulnificus is flesh eating bacteria that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns can lead to severe, life-threatening infections.
The Florida Department of Health confirmed 23 cases of vibrio in 2025, with five deaths as a result. There were 82 cases and 19 deaths in 2024. The CDC estimates that there are 80,000 vibrio infection cases per year in the US.
Genevieve said: ‘I thought I had an infection, but never did I think I had a flesh eating bacterium.’
Vibrio symptoms include fever, vomiting and diarrhea.
Doctors had to remove most of the tissue on her lower left leg
Gallagher is now recovering at the UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida
Pensacola bills Quietwater Beach as ‘great for families with small children’
Doctors were forced to remove most of the tissue on her lower left leg to prevent the flesh eating bacteria from progressing.
She said: ‘They debrided my leg down to the bare meat. They took most of the muscle, almost down to the bone, basically. It went up almost to my knee, so it’s a pretty large amount, and it’s all the way around my leg.’
Gallagher is now recovering at UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida.
She said: ‘Mila saw me in the hospital and said, “I wish this happened to me and not you,” and I started crying. That broke my heart. I was like “Mila, no, I’m so glad it didn’t happen to you. Your little body could not have taken all this that’s going on”.’
The Florida Department of Health says that ‘water and wounds do not mix.’ Its guidance is for people to ‘not enter the water if you have fresh cuts or scrapes’.
But Gallagher wants Pensacola’s beaches to have signs that indicate infection rate for vibrio.
Gallagher contracted vibrio vulnificus, which caused the 49-year-old mom to enter septic shock
Infections can also occur after eating ‘raw or undercooked’ shellfish, however.
Gallagher is expected to stay in the hospital for two-to-three more weeks and will need another surgery.
‘It’s been a lot on me and my family. My husband drives to Shands every weekend and stays with me because my mental health has just been horrible,’ she said.
‘I’ve been strong through it all, but it’s been a lot mentally, emotionally and physically.’