Flesh-eating bacteria from oysters led to the death of one Texas woman in October and two of her friends are now trying to raise awareness about the danger, KLFY-TV reported.
Jeanette LeBlanc died in October after visiting a friend in Louisiana in September and eating raw oysters, the television station reported.
LeBlanc went crabbing with friends Vicki Bergquist, from Texas, and Karen Bowers, from Louisiana, when LeBlanc and Bowers both shucked and ate the oysters, according to KLFY-TV.
"About 36 hours later she started having extreme respiratory distress, had a rash on her legs and everything," Bergquist said of LeBlanc, per the television station.
Bowers added, according to the television station, that it first appeared to be "an allergic reaction of sorts, that's what I would call it. That's what we thought."
Doctors diagnosed LeBlanc, whose condition worsened over the first 48 hours, with vibrio, a deadly flesh-eating bacteria, CBS News reported. Bergquist told the network that LeBlanc by that time had sustained severe wounds on her legs from the bacteria.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the vibrio bacteria naturally live in certain coastal waters and are present in higher concentrations between May and October when water temperatures are warmer.
The CDC stated that about a dozen of the vibrio species can cause human illness, known as vibriosis. Most people contract the bacteria by eating raw or undercooked shellfish, particularly oysters, the CDC noted.
LeBlanc and doctors fought the bacteria for 21 days until she died on Oct. 15, according to KLFY-TV.
"I can't even imagine going through that for 21 days, much less a day," Bowers said to the television station. "Most people don't last."
Bergquist told KLFY-TV that LeBlanc was "bigger than life. She was a great person, laughed a lot, loved her family, loved her dad."
Bergquist and Bowers told the television station that they both want to raise awareness about vibrio.
"If they really knew what could happen to them and they could literally die within 48, 36 hours of eating raw oysters, is it really worth it?" Bowers told KLFY-TV
Bergquist added: "If we had known that the risk was so high, I think she would've stopped eating oysters."
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