Flesh-Eating Bacteria Leaves Young Mother Blind And In $100,000 Debt From Hospital Bills
While “mud runs” have become quite popular for Gen Xers looking for a fun challenge, one such event left a young mother permanently blind. During a mud run in Dallas, Texas last week, Brittany Williams contracted a flesh-eating bacterial infection in her eye, which eventually melted away her cornea and left her both blind and $100,000 in debt from hospital bills.
The day after the mud run — a sort of obstacle course where most of the obstructions are covered with mud — Williams woke up to see her entire room white. The single mother told CBS Dallas that her eye also hurt as if she had gotten a bit of mud or debris in it during the run. She immediately went to the hospital for initial treatment but still needs more follow-up work done before she can make a full recovery. Williams, who works two jobs to support her young daughter, also does not have any health insurance, the Daily Mail reported. Without insurance, the first hospital visit cost Williams a whopping $100,000, and she'll need more for follow-ups.
Williams is now in a tough predicament. She is unable to afford the hospital bill but still needs more treatment before she can make a full recovery. However, Williams has been having difficulty finding a doctor who would see her due to her inability to pay her hefty hospital bill.
“We were scheduled for a follow-up and deep tissue biopsy/culture early this morning,” Williams said. “Before getting fully checked in or seeing any of her team members, we were asked to leave and told we could no longer be treated within their facility secondary to lack of insurance and full payment.”
Flesh-eating bacterial infections refer to rare yet serious bacteria that produce toxins to destroy tissue. According to MedicineNet, the infections most commonly occur in the arms, legs, and abdominal wall and are fatal in 30 to 40 percent of the cases. Those with compromised immune systems are at an increased chance of contracting these infections and there is even evidence that genetic factors play a role in an individual’s likeliness to fall sick to the bacteria. Those lucky enough to survive the infection, usually do not walk away in the same condition they were prior to the illness. Last July, a 21-year-old Kylie Marble lost her leg from the knee down after becoming infected with a necrotizing fasciitis, Clostridium perfringens. Eighteen-year-old Benjamin LaMontage was not as lucky and passed away from a similar infection he contracted during a routine oral surgery.
In order to help pay for her medical bills, Williams has set up a GoFundMe page. In an update on the page, Williams’s fiancé explained that she had thankfully found a specialist willing to see and treat the young mother. An eye transplant is a strong possibility, but nothing can be done until the infection has cleared. According to the fiancé, her eye is “neither healing nor regressing,” so the couple relies on faith and family to help them through the ordeal.