PHOENIX, AZ (KNXV/CNN) - Christin Lipinski visited her doctor for flu-like symptoms and a pain underneath her arm.
"The pain just started getting worse and worse, her husband Nate Lipinski said,"it was pretty much unbearable for her.”
Two days later, she was rushed into surgery to save her life from necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating bacterial infection that has claimed 30 percent of her body.
"The flu doesn't cause necrotizing fasciitis," Dr. Frank LoVecchio of Banner Health said.
The flu does weaken your immune system making you vulnerable to other infections.
Flesh-eating diseases are not contagious, since they enter through cuts on the body, but even then, LoVecchio said they're very rare.
"You're many many thousands of times likely to get the flu this year than get necrotizing fasciitis once in your life time," LoVecchio said.
Nate Lipinski said every day is touch and go and the diagnosis has been a hard reality for him and their three kids.
"To me it's felt like a life changing event and we haven't even gone through the hard part yet."
Christin Lipinski is listed in stable, but critical condition.
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