HOUSTON (AP) _ A Texas judge infected with an aggressive flesh-eating bacterium in the Gulf of Mexico says he is recovering.
Orange County justice of the peace Derry Dunn was admitted to a Houston hospital Wednesday night. Doctors told the 69-year-old he could have lost a limb if he had waited a little longer to begin treatment.
Dunn says he was diagnosed with a severe case of vibrio vulnificus (vih-BREE’-oh VUHL’-nihf-ih-kus) on his right leg. Doctors removed dead tissue from his leg about 5 inches long, less than 2 inches wide and about a half-inch deep.
Dunn told the Houston Chronicle Thursday that doctors believe it was treated in time to save the leg.
Dunn says he became infected in late July in Crystal Beach when he retrieved his grandson from the water.
