A devastated widow has shared how she lost her husband to flesh-eating bacteria after he paddled in calf-deep water at Virginia beach. Joyce D'Arcy and her husband, Derek, took a trip to the classic vacation spot in August. Four days after the couple's trip to the beach, D'Arcy noticed a purple stripe on her husband's leg. Sadly, they didn't act quickly enough and just 12 hours after the surgery, the vibrio bacteria had spread Derek's chest, hands and head. Last month, cases of vibrio infection rose into the double digits along the Gulf Coast and further up Atlantic Coast.