Brittany Williams, a young mother living in north Texas, contracted a flesh-eating bacteria during a mud run event, and went blind in one eye over the following 24-hours.
"It just completely melted off of my eye," Williams
told Dallas TV station KTVT, referring to her cloudy cornea.
"My eye started hurting, like maybe I’ve got mud or some debris in there. When I opened my eye, it was just like white. The whole room was white."
Williams, who finished the mud run roughly two weeks ago, spent a week in the hospital being treated for the bacteria. In the process, she racked up a $100,000 bill.
Williams, who already works two jobs, said she doesn't know how she'll pay the bill, as she previously opted out of the health insurance plan offered by her employer.
"I’ve had health insurance before and I never used it. I never went to the doctor and I just spent lots of money for nothing. So I didn’t see the point at the time when we couldn’t afford it," she explained. "You don’t think you’re going to go to the doctor and someone’s going to say you owe $3,000 for eye drops."
A GoFundMe page has now been set up by Williams' family members, and they hope to use the money for treatment to prevent the bacteria from spreading to her body. She said that some local doctors refused her surgery because she does not carry health insurance.
As CBS reported, flesh-eating bacteria (necrotizing fasciitis) is typically seen as a skin infection that enters the bloodstream through a cut, scrape, or bite. People with a weakened immune system are the most susceptible to the bacteria's ravages.
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