Cedar Rapids Host Recalls Flesh-Eating Fight

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The Gazette in Cedar Rapids has the details about KMRY host Ricky Bartlett’s near-death experience. Bartlett had part of his left leg amputated 18 months ago after contracting necrotizing fasciitis, also known as flesh-eating disease.

Bartlett believes he got the infection during a trip to Wyoming and South Dakota in 2010 as part of the Geographic Information Systems program at Kirkwood Community College. While he was in the Badlands of South Dakota, one of his blistered feet became stuck in the mud. It wasn’t until 2014 that Bartlett saw any symptoms and got sick. His wife made him go to the hospital.

He tells the paper, “We get to Mercy (Hospital) in Iowa City and all I remember is getting out of the car and getting into a wheelchair. They rolled me into the lobby and I passed out. I woke up and my leg was gone.”

Bartlett got a prosthetic last year and was hired by KMRY to do middays. Station Manager Eric Walker tells The Gazette he hired Ricky the same day they met after he felt “an immediate connection.”

Picture courtesy Cedar Rapids Gazette

1 COMMENT

  1. I just read this and am crying and smiling at the same time. What a wonderful person to have this amazing attitude about such a tragic event in his life.
    There is humanity in pain

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