11-year-old Florida boy dies from flesh-eating infection after spraining ankle on treadmill

An 11-year-old Florida boy is dead after he developing a flesh-eating infection following a treadmill injury.

Jesse Brown of Winter Park, just north of Orlando, died less than two weeks after he developed a deadly Group A Strep (iGAS) infection, his family told USA TODAY Friday.

His death comes on the heels of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting an uptick in iGAS infections among children in the United States in 2022, as infection numbers returned to roughly pre-pandemic levels. 

The boy’s cousin, Megan Brown, said Jesse sprained his ankle on a treadmill at a gym on Jan. 16.

She said he woke up with “a crazy rash” on Jan. 22.

“His leg was covered in splotchy, purple and red, almost like bruises,” she said. “It came on so fast… in just a matter of days it shut down all his organs.”

The boy was admitted to a hospital where doctors learned he developed the infection caused by the Group A Streptococcus bacteria, Brown said. The infection became the flesh-eating necrotizing fasciitis and caused the boy’s brain to swell.