Florida man survives 101-day battle with flesh-eating bacteria as cases surge

Along the warm coastlines of the American summer, an ancient bacterium is asserting itself with renewed force. Vibrio vulnificus — long known to science but rarely spoken of in public — has claimed at least eight lives across the United States this year, three of them in Florida, while one man from Boynton Beach emerged after 101 days in the hospital as a testament to both human endurance and the severity of what coastal waters now carry. The story of this outbreak is, at its core, a story about the relationship between human beings and the sea — and the invisible risks that warm seasons and r