Mom dies of flesh-eating bacteria after Florida vacation; may have contracted from hotel hot tub

An Indiana mother has died of a flesh-eating bacterial infection, apparently contracted while she was vacationing in Florida with her family.

WRTV reports that Carol Martin, 50, died two months after developing symptoms from flesh-eating bacteria following a vacation to Florida in February. After returning home, she reportedly noticed a painful sore on her buttocks and went to a doctor twice for treatment.

“They sent her home with more antibiotics and a heating pad and it got worse,” her husband, Richard Martin, told the news station.

After a third visit to St. Francis Hospital in Indianapolis, doctors diagnosed Martin with necrotizing fasciitis.

“In the emergency room they said ‘we are sorry but she has a flesh-eating bacteria, we have to rush her to surgery right now,'” Richard said.

Martin underwent two surgeries and spent 16 days in the Intensive Care Unit before coming home. She died there last weekend after being released from the hospital.

“She made me lunch, I kissed her goodbye to go to work. I come home early [Saturday] morning and found her passed away,” Richard Martin told the news station.

Martin’s precise cause of death is still being investigated. The Marion County Coroner’s office told WRTV that tissue samples are being analyzed to determine if the bacterial infection caused or contributed to Martin’s death, and the analysis could take up to 12 weeks.

Richard Martin told WFLA that he thinks his wife may have developed the infection from a hot tub at a Days Inn hotel in Florida.

“My thing is nobody else [in the family] got it, the flesh-eating bacteria,” Richard, told the news station.

“No one else got it but she was the only one who got in the hot tub.”

Richard said he wants an explanation for his wife’s death.

“We should have the answers and know why this went where it did,” he told WRTV.

[Feature image: Carol Martin/Facebook]