California, US | September 18, 2023
Fish is not just considered a delicacy but is believed to have very good nutritional value as well. Omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamin D, and many other nutrients found in fish are very beneficial for health. Fish is often advised by dieticians to be included in our diet.
However, a distressing piece of news from a California mom may make people wary of eating undercooked fish. A 40-year-old mom lost all her four limbs due to a bacterial infection she contracted from eating undercooked tilapia.
According to a GoFundMe campaign started by her friend Anna Messina, Laura Barajas bought the fish from a neighborhood market in San Jose last month, undercooked it, and ate it by herself at home.
According to Messina, Barajas spent more than a month in the hospital battling a Vibrio vulnificus infection before having all of her limbs amputated last week.
Anna said that Laura ate the fish and went to sleep at night. She soon started feeling uneasy and was not able to breathe. She had to be rushed to the hospital.
Laura developed sepsis and was put into a medically induced coma. Her lower lip turned black, as were her feet and her fingers. Anna added that she had severe sepsis, and her kidneys were failing.
The Vibrio vulnificus bacterial infection, which the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned about, is thought by doctors to be the likely source of the infection.
Because the infection from the uncooked fish had spread to the limbs, they had to be amputated before it spread to other parts of the body.
Each year, the CDC reports between 150 and 200 instances of infections, and one in five of those who contract the illness perishes. Immunodeficient individuals are more vulnerable to the dangerous bacterium.
According to The Mirror, Dr. Natasha Spottiswoode, an expert in infectious diseases at CSF, issued the warning, “The ways you can get infected with this bacteria are one-eating something that is contaminated with it, and the second method is by having a cut or tattoo exposed to water where this bug resides.”
