Flesh Eating Bacteria Survivor Alexis Hanford Honored as Homecoming Queen

Sixteen-year-old Alexis Hanford is a survivor of the flesh eating bacteria that almost ate her leg away.  Thankfully, she has lived to tell the story and is able to share about it with others.

The bacteria is believed to have entered her body through a cut that she got during a trip to a freshwater lake.  

Hanford told Wtop.com, "I was on a family vacation in California, and I went off of a rope swing and hit my leg on a tree log that was barely under the water. So when I let go of the rope swing it tore part of my tissue."

She is currently able to travel to school on a wheelchair.  Her 18 surgeries has left her leg unable to move and the recover is expected to take a very long time.

"It's an extremely long road to recovery and I'm not sure that I'm going to fully recover. I'm not sure what muscle I still have left. They cut out the top muscle on my leg, and that's what flexes your foot. Right now I can't move my foot, because of nerve damage. But I also am not sure how much I'm going to be able to move it once the nerves come back," Hanford said.

Hanford was honored as the homecoming queen in her high school when she returned back to school.  

Click here to read the full story on WTOP.