When this man contracted a flesh-eating bacterial infection, his wife saved his life and his leg by calling 911

• Bobby Osteen contracted a serious bacterial infection near Galveston, Texas, seven years ago.
• His wife, Loretta, called 911 when his leg started turning black.

Bobby and Loretta Osteen loved the ocean — they were scuba-diving enthusiasts living on a canal near Galveston, Texas. But their time in the water ended seven years ago when Bobby, who was 70 at the time, came home one day with pain in his leg.

"I didn't think anything of it," Bobby told Insider.

Bobby tried to sleep it off, but within four hours his leg was swelling, blistering, and turning black. Loretta insisted on calling 911, despite her husband's hesitation to seek care.

"I was trying to respect him, but by the same token I knew something's not right," she said. "I knew this was not normal."

When the ambulance arrived, paramedics didn't seem particularly concerned. But when Bobby arrived in the emergency room at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Dr. Alfred Scott Lea, an infectious-disease specialist, was immediately concerned.

Lea diagnosed Bobby with a vibrio infection, which is commonly contracted from eating undercooked seafood but can also happen when a person with a cut gets into saltwater. That's likely what happened to Bobby, who had a small cut on his foot at the time and had been on his home dock.

The CDC reports that there are about 80,000 cases per year of vibrio infections. The Texas Department of state health services says species that can cause vibrio infections are naturally found in coastal sea water in the US and can be especially found during warmer months.

Bobby's infection had progressed to necrotizing fasciitis, more commonly known as flesh-eating disease.

Doctors thought they would have to amputate

Soon, surgeons were coming to Bobby's bedside, using a Sharpie to draw where they might need to amputate his leg. That was a shock to Bobby, who was in and out of consciousness.

"My jaw hit the floor," he said. "Amputation was by no means on my radar."

Loretta was stunned too. "I kept saying, 'No, no, no. This man is active,'" she recalled.

Before he went into surgery, Bobby told the doctors to take his leg only if there was no other option to save his life.

As surgery stretched on, Loretta felt hopeful

While Bobby was in surgery, Loretta waited and waited. As the hours passed, her hope grew.

"If you amputate, that's going to be pretty straightforward," she said. "When it took longer, I thought they were saving his leg."

When Bobby emerged, he had both his legs and his life. Doctors told Loretta that if she had waited an hour longer, Bobby likely would have died.

Getting out of surgery was the beginning of a long recovery

Though Bobby was able to keep his leg, his life had changed. He was in a coma for 25 days in the intensive-care unit. Because so much of his leg tissue had to be removed, he had skin grafts and reconstruction normally reserved for people with burns. After that came two months of inpatient rehab.

The whole process was much longer than Bobby had anticipated. He said his health never returned to how it was before the infection.

"My leg is essentially fully recovered, but my body never regained its strength," he said. "When you come out of that, the muscles have deteriorated to the point that they're not functional."

Today, Bobby isn't as active as he used to be. Though he still enjoys watching the water in the canal in his backyard, he no longer gets in saltwater. He credits the surgeons at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Lea, and Loretta with saving his life.

"I owe my wife a debt I can never repay," he said. "I know that, and fortunately she knows that too."

Now they share their story in hopes of helping other people get medical help sooner, especially for infections like vibrio.