Man dies of flesh-eating bacteria infection after Hurricane Ian - The Washington Post

When James Hewitt got a call from his friend to help do repairs on his house in Florida following Hurricane Ian, Hewitt jumped at the opportunity. Almost immediately after getting off the phone, he started packing his bags.

"He was very excited," Leah Delano, Hewitt's fiancee, told The Washington Post.

From their home in Jenison, Mich., Hewitt left for Naples on Oct. 4, she said, about a week after Ian made landfall. He helped his friend with house and boat repairs — and also worked with others to clear debris in the city that had experienced intense flooding during the Category 4 storm, Delano told The Post. But that Saturday, Hewitt, 56, fell off his friend's boat into a canal, somehow scraping his leg in the process.

Early the next day, Hewitt was feverish, and his leg was swollen, said Delano, 54. He went to the hospital and was immediately admitted into the intensive care unit because doctors determined that he had developed a form of sepsis — a life-threatening condition in which a person's body has an extreme reaction to an infection.

Tuesday, three days after he had fallen off the boat, Hewitt died.

Delano said doctors told her that Hewitt had been infected by Vibrio vulnificus — a "flesh-eating" bacteria found in warm saltwater that kills about 1 in 5 people infected by it.

In Florida, there have been more than 60 vibrio infections this year, and it has killed 13 people, according to the Florida Department of Health. At least 27 infections have been recorded since the hurricane struck, The Post reported last week. It is unclear if Hewitt's case is included in that count.

In Florida, flesh-eating bacteria follow in Hurricane Ian's wake

A vibrio infection through an open wound can cause the flesh around the wound to die. If it enters a person's bloodstream, it can cause sepsis, shock and organ failure. The bacteria can also be ingested by eating raw or undercooked shellfish, which can cause vomiting and diarrhea.

While relatively rare and not contagious, experts have told The Post they expect increasing numbers of vibrio infections in Florida as more aggressive natural disasters bring brackish water inland. Warming waters and rising sea levels could also create a friendly environment for the bacteria, experts said.

"The Gulf Coast is the epicenter of disease like this," Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told The Post last week. "You have a mix of climate change, poverty and aggressive urbanization, all contributing to the exacerbation of vibrio infections and an increase of other diseases like dengue, zika and parasitic infections."

His mom's house flooded during Ian. He swam a half-mile to save her.

Delano described Hewitt as a man who took great pleasure in helping people. A retired forklift driver at a General Motors plant, Hewitt would often help mow his neighbors' lawns and take care of the weeds around the lake they lived by, Delano said. Every week, he brought food to their elderly neighbor.

"He did everything for me," Delano said, adding, "He took care of so much for all of us."

Hewitt was devastated by the havoc the hurricane wreaked on parts of Florida, Delano said, so within days of his friend's call, he drove down to his house. After he fell into the water, he phoned home and told Delano he wasn't feeling well. At first, it was unclear what was causing Hewitt's infection, Delano said. During his short time in the hospital, his condition fluctuated. Hewitt had sepsis a few years earlier, Delano said, so she believed her fiance could beat it.

But a day before Hewitt died, doctors told his family that the infection was caused by vibrio, which had a high mortality rate, Delano said.

Delano arrived in Florida and was by Hewitt's side only hours before he died. They had been together for 18 years.

"I never want to say 'don't help' because, goodness knows, those people need help," Delano said of efforts to assist hurricane victims. "But there's so many people that are going down there, and they have no idea of the dangers that exist after a disaster."

If she and her family had known about the presence of vibrio in Florida, Delano said, "we would have done everything to keep him from going."

Frances Stead Sellers and Sabrina Malhi contributed to this report.