Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\nFive days later, his leg, which had a small cut on it, started getting sore.<\/p>\n
Then things took a turn for the worse as he was diagnosed with vibrio vulnificus which stems from bacteria found in warm coastal water that can cause severe, life threatening infections.<\/p>\n
That portion of Pledger\u2019s leg had to be amputated.<\/p>\n
Local 10 News spoke to another man who cut a toe on a barnacle in Longboat Key 13 years ago.<\/p>\n
After suffering severe pain, he was put into the intensive care unit for 10 days and still has the scars.<\/p>\n
Vibrio vulnificus is rare, but it\u2019s on the rise with warmer temperatures. <\/p>\n
Health experts say symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, skin breakdown and blistering.<\/p>\n
They also say to avoid warm saltwater or brackish water if you have a weakened immune system or have open cuts or wounds.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n
![\"Janine](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/https:\/\/author-service-images-sandbox-us-east-1.publishing.aws.arc.pub\/wplginc\/21e83aab-f6c0-4437-b3.jpeg\")
Janine Stanwood<\/p>\n
Janine Stanwood joined Local 10 News in February 2004 as an assignment editor. She is now a general assignment reporter. Before moving to South Florida from her Washington home, Janine was the senior legislative correspondent for a United States senator on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ExpandWarning comes from experts regarding flesh-eating bacteria in Florida Warning comes from experts regarding flesh-eating bacteria in Florida…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":71510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[104,2132,210,7220,7218,7217,7219,7221,67,132,68,7216],"class_list":{"0":"post-71509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breaking-news-video","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-live-speeches","12":"tag-live-updates","13":"tag-live-video","14":"tag-press-conference","15":"tag-real-time-coverage","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-video-updates"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114871916583395583","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Warning comes from experts regarding flesh-eating bacteria in Florida Warning comes from experts regarding flesh-eating bacteria in Florida <\/p>\n