Festival-goer, 50, says she contracted flesh-eating bacteria at Coachella after she cut her leg while shaving
- Mona Rackauckus, 50, came down with flu-like symptoms 48 hours after attending the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April
- She went to the emergency room and learned it was necrotizing fasciitis
- She believes she got the infection through a cut in her leg she got while shaving
A California mom said she got flesh-eating bacteria when she attended the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival earlier in the year.
Mona Rackauckus, 50, of Corona, California, told KTLA that she believed she picked up necrotizing fasciitis through a cut on her leg when she went to the famous outdoor music festival in April.
Rackauckus said that about 48 hours after attending the concert, she started to experienced flu-like symptoms.
Mona Rackauckus, 50, had six surgeries and spent three weeks in the hospital after contracting flesh-eating bacteria in her leg from a cut she got while shaving
Rackauckus believes the infection occurred while she was at the Coachella festival in April
‘The chills and the fever, that’s how it starts,’ she said, adding that she also saw redness on her leg and felt ‘heat and just a lot of pain.’
Rackauckus considers herself lucky that she went to emergency room right away and that doctors figured out it was flesh-eating bacteria quickly.
Unlike some others who have suffered from the same infection, necessitating amputation, Rackauckus was able to keep her leg after six surgeries and three weeks in the hospital.
Rackauckus told KTLA she thinks the rare bacteria entered her body through a small cut she got from shaving, but that there’s no way to be certain ‘exactly how, when, where’ the infection took hold.
Rackauckus said 48 hours after attending Coachella, she came down with flu-like symptoms and had redness and pain in her leg, which was determined to be necrotizing fasciitis
Rackauckus (in green) said she was lucky because she went to the emergency room so quickly
Rackauckus was able to avoid having her leg amputated through multiple surgeries
‘It could’ve blown in with some wind, it could have been in a restroom, we just don’t know,’ she said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), between 700 and 1,200 cases occur in the US each year.
Early symptoms include a red or swollen area of the skin and severe pain. Later symptoms can include dizziness, nausea, blisters and change in skin color.
The health agency says that a prompt diagnosis and rapid treatment is key to stopping the infection in its tracks.
This includes antibiotics or surgery when medication is unable to reach the tissue that has already been infected.
The CDC says about 25 to 30 percent of necrotizing fasciitis cases every year result in death.