Yvonne Richards noticed a bump developing on her buttocks as she was experiencing flu-like symptoms last week.
"I had a high fever, I had nausea, dizziness... all that stuff, and I was like I think it's time to go to the urgent care clinic," Yvonne said.
But, the next day, the bump on her backside nearly tripled in size.
Yvonne and her husband, Eric, rushed to the emergency room, where doctors diagnosed her with a flesh-eating bacteria and told her there was no time to waste.
"We need to transfer you to Scott & White Medical Center because it's really bad. You need surgery, and you need it now," Yvonne added, remembering the conversation with her doctors.
Yvonne says she had three surgeries to remove the dead flesh and prevent the infection from spreading.
"That was probably one of the longest hours, hour and a half of my life right there, just sitting in that waiting room, waiting," Yvonne's husband, Eric, said.
Eric and Yvonne have been married for 16 years and have three children.
"It scared me at the possibility that I could lose her, that my kids could lose her because, at the time, the doctors thought they had caught it early enough. But, they wouldn't know until after they did the surgery, and on their statistics, it was 35 percent fatality rate if they catch it early, 70 if they don't catch it early," Eric added.
Yvonne is in the recovery period now and will have to return to the hospital every three days.
"I just can't wait to get home to my kids," Yvonne said.
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