Stray Cat Bite Triggers Flesh-Eating Bacteria in 76-Year-Old Bakersfield Woman
Nadia Watson was doing what millions of Americans do: feeding stray cats outside her home in Bakersfield, California. In August 2025, one of those cats got startled and bit her just below her right knee -- the same knee where she had a total knee replacement 18 years earlier.
She wiped the wound with an alcohol pad and moved on with her day.
Weeks later, she was fighting for her life.
The Infection That Moves an Inch a Minute
Watson's leg turned red, swelled up, and became impossible to bend. She went to the emergency department at Adventist Health Bakersfield on August 12, 2025. Dr. Timothy Galan drained her knee and started antibiotics.
Two days later she came back. The infection had gotten worse. Thick fluid was draining from her leg.
Dr. Galan took her straight to the operating room that night. He removed the metal and cement from her 18-year-old knee replacement and cleaned the joint. Then he saw something that changed the urgency of everything.
That is Dr. Galan describing what he found: necrotizing fasciitis -- flesh-eating bacteria. The infection had latched onto the metal implant, spread through her tissue, and was consuming her leg in real time.
Above: Clinical photo of a hand with necrotizing fasciitis following a cat bite, from a separate published medical case. The Bakersfield case affected the patient's knee and leg.
Watson was eventually transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where she underwent additional surgery, a skin graft, and weeks of rehabilitation. Her life and her leg were saved. Barely.
The Numbers Behind Cat Bites
Cat bites send over 66,000 Americans to the emergency room every year.
Between 20 and 80 percent of cat bites become infected, depending on location and depth. Cat teeth are thin and sharp -- they create deep puncture wounds that seal over fast, trapping bacteria in warm, closed tissue. The primary culprit is Pasteurella multocida, present in up to 90% of cat mouths, but secondary infections from Streptococcus and Staphylococcus species can trigger necrotizing fasciitis.
A French multicenter study across 46 ICUs found that among 174 patients admitted with severe cat bite infections, the mortality rate was 24.1 percent. Nearly one in four died.
For patients who develop Capnocytophaga infections from cat bites, one in ten requires amputation.
The Feeding Problem
Watson was bitten while feeding strays. This is not an uncommon scenario. Stray and feral cats are not socialized. They startle easily. They bite reflexively. And their mouths carry the same bacteria as any other cat, often compounded by untreated dental disease.
Municipalities across the country actively encourage residents to feed feral cat colonies through Trap-Neuter-Return programs. They hand out pamphlets. They provide food. They do not hand out warnings about flesh-eating bacteria.
Watson's survival came down to the speed of one surgeon on one night. A few hours later and the bacteria would have reached her abdomen. She would have died from an act of kindness toward an animal that repaid her with an infection that eats human tissue alive.
Sources:
Adventist Health: Orthopedic Surgeon Saves Patient from Rare Cat Bite Infection
PMC: Multicenter ICU Study on Cat Bite Infections
Mayo Clinic: 1 in 3 Cat Bite Patients Hospitalized