BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — A summer day at the beach turned into a life-threatening battle for a Lafayette man who contracted Vibrio vulnificus, a rare but dangerous flesh-eating bacterium that lives in warm, salty waters and can also be contracted from raw seafood.

Jeremy Noel, 47, said a dip in the Gulf during a trip to Mississippi nearly cost him his life.

“I was shivering, I couldn’t walk, lost all control of bodily functions,” Noel recalled.

Doctors later discovered that cuts on his foot had allowed the bacteria to enter his body.

“What I was told coming out was basically they were going to amputate my leg in 24 hours if I hadn’t gotten any signs of improvement,” Noel said.

Although he survived the infection more than 14 years ago, Noel is still living with lasting heal

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