"In the span of a few short days, Remijio "Raimy" Chavez went from camping with family and friends near Lincoln National Forest to fighting for his life against a Flesh-Eating Bacteria at University Hospital."

That is what the headlines of newspaper shouted out about my dad. My Dad, a 57-year-old-resident of New Mexico, went deer hunting on Friday afternoon after he'd gotten off work. While there, the next morning, Saturday, he spotted a small red irritation to his inner left thigh. He thought a spider had bitten him. It was so minor he didn't think anything of it. I've been reading about people having flu like systems associated with NF but he didn't even complain about feeling sick, but by Sunday, he couldn't stand the pain.

His brother brought him home from the mountains. My dad never went to the doctor much, and he definitely wasn't going to the doctor now, for what he thought was a spider bite. Finally, the pain was unbearable and I got the phone call that my dad needed to go to the hospital. He just thought that they would give him a shot and send him home. He didn't even think that he would have to stay overnight or anything.

On the way to the hospital my dad was having trouble breathing and he started to see funny. He said everything looked white even the houses. When we got to the hospital he was in such pain that they took him in right away and checked his vitals. His blood pressure was unusually low so they put him in an examination room right away and asked him to put on a gown. The nurse closed the curtain so he could change. He called me because he needed help. He was in so much pain. Still not thinking the worse we fought with the gown and laughed about it. He was still convinced that all they were going to do was give him a shot of something and send him home. We thought he was having an allergic reaction.

When I saw his thigh, I was shocked. I probably don't have to go into the details of what it looked like. Everyone probably already knows. I told my dad that I thought that they may keep him over night but I reassured him that he would be okay and that I would pick him up tomorrow after I got off work. That was on a Sunday around 2:30 p.m.

I started calling my brother and sisters in. My dad asked me "why are you doing that? You don't need to call everyone in". I just told him "don't be silly dad, you are going in for surgery". The surgeon came in and told me that he was going to need surgery and that he had the flesh-eating bacteria. I was like "what"? I mean I had heard of it but had no concept of the seriousness of it. I told my dad that I was scared and he told me that he was a little scared too.

We got to visit with my dad before surgery. Right before he went in they let us all go in the emergency room. He was so worried because the doctors had told him what the surgery involved. He didn't want the doctors messing up his "beautiful leg". As they were rolling away my dad for surgery, I stood in the hall and just looked at him. I blow him a kiss and he winked at me like "don't worry I am going to be okay".

They worked on him for almost 3 hours. Then the doctor came into the waiting room to talk to us. He was talking very serious. Now that I look back I think he was trying his best to prepare us. He said we would be able to see him in about an hour. So around 9:00 p.m. we were allowed to see him two by two in the ICU. He was conscience for a while. We knew we had a long night ahead of us.

My brother and sisters went home to rest, but I decided to stay. My husband stayed with me. I went in again to see my dad and let him know that someone was going to be with him all night. That was when he started to go into septic shock. The doctors asked me to leave because they wanted to put a catheter to his heart so that they could better monitor it. They said I could go back and see him in about an hour.

The hour had past then another half hour. I walked back to ICU, but didn't walk in. The doctors saw me. So they knew I was concerned. They came out a few moments later and told me the prognosis was not good. I don't remember hearing much after that. All I remember saying is "do I need to call everyone back?" The doctor said "yes". When my brother and sister returned to the hospital they all told me that "the one thing that we didn't want to hear was the phone ring and when it did we all started screaming".

The hospital was soon filled with all his relatives the people closest to him. There were about 15 people there. Not once did the nurses or doctors ask us to leave. They let us all be in ICU, come and go as we pleased, they were truly wonderful. Now that I look back, I know they did it because they didn't think my dad would make it through the night, but he did. In the morning, once again, the doctors came in and told us that he is not going to make it, but "yeah" I had heard that one before and he was still here.

By mid morning Monday he was looking better. They even were able to remove some more of the dead flesh that they weren't able to before because he had become unstable during surgery. He was stable all through the day.

My younger sister was going to spend that night with my father, so the rest of us went home around midnight. Not one hour later the phone rang. My dad's heart had stopped. We had all agreed earlier to resuscitate, at least once. So they did. Once again ICU had filled up with family members. No one telling us to leave. When I arrived I was told that they wanted to pull him off the ventilator. I freaked out and screamed "NO"! He was still so warm. Even though it was in his will not to put him on life support, I couldn't let him go yet.

Finally, around 3 or 4 a.m., I could see that he was already gone. His feet and hands were cold and he was bleeding from him mouth and nose. All I could do, all anybody could do was wipe the blood away. We all agreed it was time. It took awhile for the doctors, to get everything in order.

Then at 6:00 a.m., the ventilator was turned off. Everyone was crying even the nurses were crying. Everyone's heart was broken. There was about 15 people gathered around him, but all I can remember is his four kids there with him, touching him, and singing to him, "In the Garden". We sang my dad to heaven.

My dad is a wonderful caring man. He praises God for his healing everyday. He has faith and courage. He left his children with a beautiful legacy. My dad is always ready and willing to help anyone and everyone. He enjoys camping, fishing, hunting. He loves spending time with his family.

I am so angry that no one talks about NF. I had no concept or would never think "oh maybe he has NF and needs to go to the hospital right away". Everyone thinks and is told how rare NF is but in reality it's not that rare at all. 1-2 people a week just in New Mexico contract NF, 40 alone this year and that is just at one hospital. So tell me how rare is NF really?

We did get some publicity about NF here in New Mexico. Every news station, radio station and newspapers ran my dad's story. People thought we were crazy for putting ourselves through reliving the details of his death, but it was something that needed to be done. My dad always says, "If you are able to save one person's soul that was the whole purpose for life". My dad was such a great man. I just couldn't let his death be for nothing. Even in death, he is still trying to help someone. I hope we accomplished it.