SAN MARCOS, Texas -- A San Marcos man died last month because of a rare flesh-eating bacteria he caught while fishing on the Texas coast. Now, his family wants to raise awareness about the signs of infection. 

  • Jerry Sebek died after catching flesh-eating bacteria
  • Happened during June fishing trip 
  • CDC warns eating raw fish or having open wounds dangerous 

“This last fishing trip that we were on, he was really excited to go and to ​fish with his grandson," Kim Sebek said of her father, 78-year-old Jerry Sebek. "That was just the type of guy he was.” ​

This past June, Jerry Sebek’s annual fishing trip with family took a tragic turn. 

“We felt like he might be suffering from heat exhaustion, he had chills and he was vomiting a little bit and shivering, felt like he was running a fever," Kim Sebek said. 

His family took him to a medical center where he was treated for heat-related illness. Four hours later he began to develop a strange rash. The next morning, it was drastically worse. 

“You’re not talking about penny-sized blisters, you’re talking about quarter-sized blisters forming on his forearm and underneath his forearm, so you know it wasn’t a sunburn at that time," said Kim Sebek. 

More than 20 hours after the rash first appeared, he was taken to a hospital in Victoria where they diagnosed him with vibriosis, an illness caused by a flesh-eating bacteria. 

After multiple surgeries and amputations over the course of 11 days, Jerry Sebek succumbed to the infection and died on June 25. 

“It hasn’t been quite a month and I just miss hearing my dad’s voice, miss seeing him, his hugs and kisses, his support and encouragement, and just everything that he meant to me," Kim Sebek said.  

Although contracting flesh-eating bacteria is extremely rare, his family wants people to know that antibiotics and treatment can prevent death if the infection is caught early enough. 

“You just get it by chance. But we want people to know the signs and symptoms and early detection," said Kim Sebek. "I know I keep saying that, but it could be the difference in not only my dad but somebody else’s life and death.” 

According to the CDC, you can become infected with vibrio by eating raw or undercooked shellfish, or if an open wound comes into contact with brackish water. 

The signs and symptoms include fever, dangerously low blood pressure, blistering skin lesions, and redness and swelling around open wounds.