I have eaten raw oysters much of my adult life. I have been aware of the risks, but since I had no experience of getting sick from eating raw oysters, I did not pay much attention to that warning, thinking I must be immune.

Our family vacation this year was to Hawaii, the islands of Maui and Kauai. One of  my favorite restaurants on Maui is Mama’s Fish House. Having had the oysters there before, I didn’t even give them a second thought. I ordered a dozen Chelsea Oyster Gems for the family. No one got sick but me. Of course, it only takes one bad oyster that is infected with Vibrio Vulnificus. This is a Gram-negative rod that has flagella, which allow it to move around. I can’t be sure that was the organism that made me sick, but the coincidences seem to match up. The gold standard proof is to culture the bacteria which was not available to me on the island of Kauai. I became ill almost exactly  50 hours after eating the oysters, which happens to be the incubation period of that disease. My symptoms were severe stomach pain, nausea, and vomiting. But since I was unable to eat or drink anything, not much came up. The stomach pain was intense, waking me up in the middle of the night. In my 54-year career of dealing with surgical illness, I recognized what a “ surgical abdomen” is. It is when pain localizes to one quadrant of the abdomen, and pushing on the other quadrants and releasing it quickly causes pain in that quadrant, Blumberg’s sign. It was my right side that was tender and I had rebound pain to that side of the abdomen. Another related sign is something called Rovsig’s sign, seen in appendicitis. Upon pushing down on the patient’s left lower quadrant, the patient experiences pain in the right lower quadrant. I had that too. I was starting to look up the names of surgeons in Kauai. Then I remembered the oysters 50 hours ago. I had one more option open to me, and that was to start antibiotics directed at Vibrio Vulnificus. My medical license is issued in California, not valid in Hawaii, but a friendly pharmacist kindly filled my self-written prescription upon presenting sufficient ID. Ciprofloxacin is one of those antibiotics. Upon taking just three pills 8 hours apart, the pain and nausea magically disappeared.  Although I cannot be certain of my diagnosis, the combination of the 50-hour incubation time of the disease and the rapid response to antibiotics makes it highly suspicious. An old proverb says that a doctor who treats himself has a fool for a doctor and an idiot for a patient. That would be me, but luckily, it worked this time, and I could discard the list of Kauai surgeons I had gathered from the internet, just two on Kauai, only one board-certified.

Up to that time, I had very little experience with that organism. One of my surgical instructors, originally from New Orleans—a city known for its cultural tradition of consuming raw oysters, with oyster establishments common throughout—experienced a severe illness due to a Vibrio infection.  That infection is said to have a mortality rate of 33%. He had an additional risk factor. He had contracted Hepatitis C from an accidental needle stick in surgery. He developed cirrhosis, which adds a considerable additional risk with Vibrio infections, and almost died of it.

My ingesting raw oysters over some seventy years never gave me any problems; this time it did. I never want to experience that again. Raw oysters are not worth risking your life for. Oysters Rockefeller are nearly as good and, being cooked, eliminate Vibrio.  Although I have consumed raw oysters for over 75 years without experiencing illness, I have decided to refrain from eating them in the future.  It just isn’t worth it!