Forget pirates!
Here is the scariest thing in the Gulf!!!


HOUSTON -- A Nacogdoches man was in critical but stable condition after
three surgeries aimed at saving him from a flesh-eating bacteria that
infected him during a swim off the coast of Galveston County.

Steve Gilpatrick, 58, was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, a
tissue-destroying disease caused by a bacterium called Vibrio
vulnificus, when he took ill three days after swimming during a July 8
fishing trip at Crystal Beach.

Gilpatrick's physician, Dr. David Herndon, the chief of burn services
and professor of surgery at the University of Texas Medical Branch in
Galveston, said Tuesday the situation is life-threatening because the
infection spread to Gilpatrick's blood. Gilpatrick is suffering from
multiple organ failure and doctors are trying to save his leg.

"I've heard of flesh-eating bacteria, but it always seemed so far away,"
said his wife, Linda Gilpatrick. "It's not. It's here."

The Gilpatricks regularly vacation in Galveston each summer, she said.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the
bacterium Vibrio vulnificus thrives during summer months in the warm
waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Swimmers with weakened immune systems,
such as cancer patients or people with liver disease, are most at risk.
A point of entry, such as an open wound, allows the bacteria into the body.

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