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Man contracts flesh-eating bacteria, loses leg after day at the beach with family

Posted at 6:32 PM, Jun 21, 2016
and last updated 2016-06-22 08:38:04-04

***Warning: Video contains graphic image

HOUSTON — What began as a day at the beach with his family turned into a nightmare for one Texas man.

Brian Parrott, 50, was at the beach in Galveston, Texas, with his family on June 12. He was only in the water for a short period of time.

The next day, Parrott began to feel very ill. His mother, Donna Dailey, told KRIV it all happened so fast.

"You go swimming with your family on Sunday, you go to work on Monday, you have a red leg on Tuesday, Wednesday you have boils on your leg, Thursday you lose the leg," Dailey told KRIV.

Parrott was rushed to LBJ Hospital in Houston where an emergency surgery removed his right leg from the knee down. He is still being monitored at the hospital as of Tuesday afternoon, KRIV reports.

Doctors told his mother he likely contracted a flesh-eating bacteria through a scratch on his foot.

The family said there were no warning signs at the beach and felt it was important to share Parrott's story.

"We want to get the word out, and that's the main thing. There's nothing more that we can do for my son but maybe we can save somebody else," Dailey said.

Necrotizing fasciitis, commonly referred to as a flesh-eating bacteria, is a rare, serious bacterial skin infection that spreads quickly and kills the body's soft tissue, according to the CDC.