Johnathan Daggett of Arizona has been in the hospital for over a week and he believes that a family water park might be the source of his discomfort. He checked himself in two weeks ago when he began to notice that his skin was swelling and peeling off and he was overcome by waves of nausea. In the hospital, Daggett was rushed to surgery after doctors discovered the problem — he was slowly being eaten alive by flesh-eating bacteria.
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Daggett told AZFamily.com that when he first heard the worlds “flesh-eating bacteria,” he couldn’t believe it. He noted, “it sounds like some stuff off of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles you know, some mutant X-Men-type thing […] some people come out as amputees. Like my leg could have been cut off. So it could have been a lot worse.”
About a week before he contracted the bacteria, Daggett went to a local “splash pad” and he thinks that he might have picked up the deadly bacteria at the water park.
WKRC spoke to Dr. Frank LoVecchio, who frequently works with bacteria, and learned that it’s almost impossible to determine exactly where Daggett was infected. LoVecchio noted, “as the heat goes up, you’re more likely to develop bacteria and bacterial growth […] my message is pretty much, be careful with your kids.”
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AZFamily is not naming the city or where the splash pad is located, saying “there’s no way to prove that Daggett got the bacteria there.” However, they did contact a spokesperson for the venue who said that the water that comes out is tap water and is not recirculated.