Doctors told the family Brian Roush had a 10% chance to live after necrotizing fasciitis.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida man who scraped his ankle while vacationing in the Bahamas over New Year’s was hospitalized in Fort Lauderdale with a fast-moving “flesh-eating” infection that led to emergency surgery, organ failure and a long recovery, according to his family and an online fundraiser.
The case has drawn attention because the injury started as a small scrape and worsened quickly, a pattern doctors say can happen with necrotizing fasciitis, a rare but severe infection that destroys soft tissue. In Brian Roush’s case, the illness escalated during travel back to Florida, and his family said he went into septic shock and needed life support. His daughter has said doctors put his odds of survival at 10% or lower, and the family has raised money to help cover extended rehabilitation and related costs.
Roush, 62, traveled to the Bahamas with his girlfriend, Tonia Buford Stinson, to celebrate recently moving in together, his daughter Brittany Roush told Florida media. During the trip, he tripped and scraped his ankle, an injury the family initially viewed as minor. The family said he cleaned the wound and continued typical vacation activities, including riding waterslides and visiting the popular tourist attraction where visitors swim with pigs. The trip also included seafood meals, Brittany Roush wrote in a GoFundMe campaign describing the family’s timeline.
On Jan. 3, as the couple traveled back to Florida, the fundraiser said he became “violently ill.” Within hours of arriving, the family said he was admitted to a hospital in Fort Lauderdale with severe septic shock, placed on a ventilator and intubated. Brittany Roush said that while he was in the emergency room, “his ankle erupted into blisters,” a sign doctors viewed as alarming. Physicians suspected necrotizing fasciitis and moved quickly to surgery to remove infected tissue, the family said, describing the operation as a step that likely saved his life.
Necrotizing fasciitis is sometimes called “flesh-eating disease,” though it can be caused by more than one type of bacteria. Federal health officials say one cause is invasive group A streptococcus, and diagnosis can be difficult early because the illness may initially resemble less serious infections. Treatment typically requires urgent antibiotics and surgery to remove dead or infected tissue. Medical sources describe early warning signs that can include severe pain around an injury, fever and gastrointestinal symptoms, followed by rapidly worsening skin changes.
In Roush’s case, the family said the infection quickly triggered sepsis, a dangerous body-wide response to infection. The fundraiser said his liver, kidneys and lungs failed while he was in septic shock, and he was placed in an induced coma on life support. The family said his ankle became gangrenous and that surgeons removed tissue from his ankle to his lower calf, down to the bone. Doctors told the family his chance of surviving was 10% or lower, the fundraiser said, and relatives gathered to be near him as his condition worsened.
After about a week, the family said his condition began to stabilize. The fundraiser said he cleared the infection after nonstop antibiotics and life support, and that his lungs and liver began to recover. But the family said he remained seriously ill and faced additional procedures. Brittany Roush wrote that when he was well enough, surgeons performed a muscle flap and skin graft to replace missing tissue, taking his entire right latissimus dorsi muscle and a piece of skin from his thigh. That reconstruction required another stay in intensive care, the fundraiser said.
The family said kidney failure continued and that he was receiving daily dialysis with the expectation that function could return. The fundraiser said he also developed severe ICU myopathy, a condition marked by profound weakness after critical illness, leaving him bedbound. Brittany Roush wrote that he has needed multiple blood transfusions due to anemia. Even as his condition improved, the family said the next phase would be long and uncertain: rebuilding strength, learning to stand and walk again, and recovering use of his limbs.
In the days after the emergency, relatives also faced logistics that stretched across several states and countries. The fundraiser said a son-in-law flew to Florida to drive Roush’s three dogs to Maryland for care. The family also described the death of an elderly dog with cancer, saying they made the decision to euthanize the pet while Roush was still on life support. Brittany Roush wrote that Stinson lives with him in the Tampa area, while one daughter lives in Maryland and another lives in Germany, adding travel expenses and time away from work to the medical crisis.
The GoFundMe, organized by Brittany Roush in Spring Hill, Florida, said it is intended to help cover medical bills, rehabilitation, dialysis, travel and pet care, along with other costs that insurance may not fully address. The fundraiser said Roush would be unable to work for at least three months and would need a long-term rehabilitation facility near home for intensive physical therapy. Brittany Roush wrote that he has tried to keep his spirits up, cracking jokes and complimenting nurses to “keep the ice water flowing.”
Doctors and public health officials note that “flesh-eating” infections are rare, but can become life-threatening quickly once they take hold. Federal health guidance emphasizes the need for rapid assessment and treatment when suspected, often including immediate surgery and intravenous antibiotics. The Roush family has not publicly identified the specific bacteria involved in his case, and it remains unclear exactly when and where the organism entered the wound. The family has attributed the infection to the ankle scrape and exposure during the trip, while medical sources note that several bacteria in different environments can lead to necrotizing infections.
Roush remained hospitalized in South Florida as the family prepared for his next transfer, according to the fundraiser. His relatives said the next milestone would be moving him to a long-term rehabilitation facility closer to home to begin intensive physical therapy and rebuild basic mobility.
Author note: Last updated February 10, 2026.