A dad died after eating a 'one in a billion' bad oyster while celebrating his birthday at a seafood restaurant.
Roger 'Rocky' Pickney succumbed to a bacterial infection a week after eating at a nearby restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on July 21.
The 44-year-old arrived at Memorial Pembroke Hospital on July 23 with sickness and abdominal pain, according to a medical report.
He tested positive for Vibrio vulnificus, a pathogenic bacteria found in marine environments.
Rocky died on July 31 following a week of emergency surgeries and a double amputation.
The restaurant manager said the dad - who had visited with his daughter, having worked there as a bus boy two decades ago - ate there on a day when up to 100 dozen oysters were served.
He said Rocky was the only customer who fell ill.
“He had that one in a billion that was bad,” the restaurant manager told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “I feel horrible.”
Vibrio can kill up to one-third of those infected if consumed raw or undercooked seafood.
Investigators from the Florida Department of Health visited the restaurant to investigate the oyster inventory the day after Rocky fell ill, and "passed with flying colours", he said.
He went on to say oysters are a dangerous food to eat and anyone who does is putting themselves at risk.
"Over the course of 60 years, we have served a couple of billion oysters and we never had anyone get sick as this guy did," he added.
Rocky's daughter Jaelyn Pinckney said they had gone to celebrate her graduating high school and his upcoming birthday.
She told the Seattle Times: "He was the life of every single party. Never a single moment of just boring around him."
Jaelyn also had the oysters but didn't fall ill.
She visited her dad in hospital every day.
“It still doesn’t feel completely real,” she added. “I don’t know how an oyster could cause all of this.”
Rocky was the president of Davie-based 5 Diamond Construction Inc and the owner of Seminole Auto Salon and Rocky's Pest Services.
According to the Florida Department of Health website, there have been 26 cases in 2022 of people in Florida who have been infected with the bacteria.
A community leader Rodney Jackson in the same state also died from Vibrio on August 9 after eating an oyster at a local restaurant, reports Pensacola News Journal.
It's understood in both cases, the oysters had come from Louisiana.
Dr Robert "Wes" Farr of the University of West Florida told the news outlet that Vibrio infections related to raw seafood and oysters are more common in the summer.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a Vibrio-infected oyster looks, smells, and tastes the same as any other oyster.
Most infections only result in diarrhea and vomiting, according to the agency.
