A young Texas mom went blind in her eye after flesh-eating bacteria seeped its way into a cut during a “Mud Run�? earlier this month in Dallas. 
 
 Brittany Williams has no insurance and, after a week week in the hospital, now owes more than $100,000 in medical bills — even as she faces more treatment to prevent the debilitating bacteria from spreading through her body. 
 
 “My eye started hurting, like maybe I’ve got mud or some debris in there,�? Brittany Williams told KTVT-TV of the symptoms she had hours after the race. “When I opened my eye, it was just like white. The whole room was white.�? 
 
 FOLLOW THE DAILY NEWS ON FACEBOOK. CLICK HERE TO "LIKE" 
 
 Doctors at the emergency room told Williams she had “several abrasions on her cornea and what looked like a chemical burn�? and eventually sent her home, according to a Go Fund Me page raising donations for the family. 
 
 Some 24 hours later, “things took a turn for the worse�? and she was hospitalized. Her cornea “just completely melted off of my eye," she told KTVT of the flesh-eating bacteria. 
 
 Williams is now blind in her left eye and likely needs more antibiotics to prevent the bacteria from spreading throughout her bloodstream. 
 
 Brittany Williams said her eye started hurting badly just hours after competing in the Mud Run earlier this month in Dallas. (KTVT) 
 
 Despite working two jobs, Williams chose to opt out of her insurance and will have to pay her medical bills out of pocket. 
 
 “I’ve had health insurance before and I never used it. I never went to the doctor and I just spent lots of money for nothing. So I didn’t see the point at the time when we couldn’t afford it,�? she told the CBS affiliate. “You don’t think you’re going to go to the doctor and someone’s gonna say you owe $3,000 for eye drops.�? 
 
 Bacteria is reportedly rampant at mud races like the one Williams ran and similar Tough Mudder-like events. A report last May from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that 22 people contracted a diarrheal illness in October 2012, likely because they accidentally swallowed water contaminated with bacteria from animal feces during an extreme obstacle course in Nevada. 
 
 Mud runs have previously been reported to be cesspools of bacteria, with reports of people being sickened by bacteria from feces in the water. (KARL-JOSEF HILDENBRAND/AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 And in France, after a Mud Day race on Saturday, at least 30 runners of about 8,000 became “violently ill�? from gastroenteritis, according to French news site The Local. The sickness may stem from mud contaminated with bacteria. 
 
 Williams, for her part, is trying to stay positive about the ordeal. There is a chance she could regain her sight, but several doctors have refused to treat her because she doesn’t have insurance. 
 
 About 170 have donated nearly $10,000 to the stricken mom since her ordeal began two weeks ago. 
 
 “Even though people go through horrible things, I make the best of it,�? Williams told KTVT. “Because there’s no point in sitting and sulking, because it’s just going to make the rest of my days miserable.�? 
 
 ON A MOBILE DEVICE? WATCH THE VIDEO HERE. ||||| Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter 
 
 COLLIN COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) – A young woman went blind in one eye within 24 hours after catching a flesh-eating bacteria during a mud run in Dallas this month. 
 
 “My eye started hurting, like maybe I’ve got mud or some debris in there,” said Brittany Williams, who finished her first mud run two weeks ago. “When I opened my eye, it was just like white. The whole room was white.” 
 
 Williams said the debris cut her eye, allowing flesh-eating bacteria to destroy her cornea. “It just completely melted off of my eye.” 
 
 A mother with two jobs, Williams spent a week in the hospital. Her medical bills are $100,000 and she doesn’t have health insurance. 
 
 “I’ve had health insurance before and I never used it. I never went to the doctor and I just spent lots of money for nothing. So I didn’t see the point at the time when we couldn’t afford it,” said Williams. 
 
 Her family is raising money through a GoFundMe account for treatment to prevent the bacteria from spreading throughout Williams’ body. 
 
 “You don’t think you’re going to go to the doctor and someone’s gonna say you owe $3,000 for eye drops,” said Williams, who compared her experience to a horror movie. 
 
 Despite her painful, gruesome ordeal, Williams has remained optimistic. 
 
 “Even though people go through horrible things, I make the best of it. Because there’s no point in sitting and sulking, because it’s just going to make the rest of my days miserable,” she said. 
 
 There’s a chance Williams’ will eventually regain her vision with surgery. Several local doctors however have denied her treatment since she lacks insurance. 
 
 (©2015 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.) ||||| × Texas woman recounts her ‘unreal’ fight against flesh-eating bacteria 
 
 AUSTIN, Texas – A Texas woman is recovering after a trip to the beach quickly turned into a life-threatening scare. 
 
 “I feel like I’ve absolutely walked out of this like a cat that used one of their lives,” said Michelle O’Brien. 
 
 Within hours, a seemingly small accident left Michelle’s family never wanting to return. 
 
 Michelle and her son were looking for sea glass when she stepped on an oyster. 
 
 “That oyster was like a razor blade, like a surgeon’s scalpel, it went straight through,” she said. 
 
 Even though she was wearing thick sneakers, Michelle was exposed to Vibrio Vulnificus, a flesh-eating bacteria. 
 
 “Kinda like you’re on fire from within,” she said. 
 
 Vibrio Vulnificus is in the same family as Cholera. 
 
 It attacks the immune system and can destroy feet, hands and anywhere there is an open wound. 
 
 “The only reason I still have my foot attached to me is because I got those early antibiotics in,” she said. 
 
 She was headed home to Austin with a dose of antibiotics, but they were not enough. 
 
 Michelle spent five days in the hospital, mostly in the ICU. 
 
 “It was unreal how quickly it came on,” O’Brien said. 
 
 Most cases of the bacteria happen between May and October because that’s when the water is warmest. 
 
 “People don’t realize it’s not just on oysters, this bacteria is in the water. If it were a small child or an older person or somebody that’s not in tip-top shape, it is absolutely deadly,” she said. 
 
 She says she is thankful for the second chance she has been given and will never look at the ocean the same way again.
– A young mother in Texas who holds down two jobs but doesn't have health insurance is in the fight of her life—doing battle with not just the necrotizing fasciitis that has already claimed the vision in her left eye but also with her $100,000 medical bill. It all started a few hours after a mud run in Dallas earlier this month. "My eye started hurting, like maybe I've got mud or some debris in there," Brittany Williams tells CBS DFW. "When I opened my eye, it was just like white. The whole room was white.... [The bacteria] just completely melted off of my eye." She suspects that debris cut her eye, providing an entryway for the bacteria; CBS reports it has destroyed her cornea. And while some doctors have told her it's possible she'll someday regain vision in that eye with surgery, she needs antibiotics to prevent the bacteria from spreading to other parts of her body and several doctors are denying her treatment because she has no insurance. (Her GoFundMe page is currently at around $11,500. An updated posted there on Tuesday notes "we were asked to leave [an appointment] and told we could no longer be treated within their facility secondary to lack of insurance and full payment.") Williams' ordeal isn't exactly rare, reports the New York Daily News. Just last week, dozens of mud runners in France became violently ill from gastroenteritis, likely due to bacteria in the mud, while 22 people contracted a diarrheal illness in Nevada in 2012 thanks to bacteria in animal feces on an obstacle course. (In Florida, a "flesh-eating" water bacteria has killed two.)