--- title: 8-Year-Old Dies of Flesh Eating Bacteria After Fall Off Bike description: An 8-year-old boy died after a fall off his bicycle led him to contract a flesh eating disease canonical: https://time.com/5121649/flesh-eating-bacteria-boy-dies/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-27T17:03:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:02:36.703Z article:section: Health og:title: 8-Year-Old Dies of Flesh Eating Bacteria After Fall Off Bike og:description: "The pain was so bad that he was screaming. It’s horrific." og:url: https://time.com/5121649/flesh-eating-bacteria-boy-dies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte699dc3ee22284da/6988f9b67cdbac83fbd5bbd2/liam-flanagan-mother.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2250 og:image:height: 1266 og:image:alt: Bacteria Death og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 8-Year-Old Dies of Flesh Eating Bacteria After Fall Off Bike twitter:description: "The pain was so bad that he was screaming. It’s horrific." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte699dc3ee22284da/6988f9b67cdbac83fbd5bbd2/liam-flanagan-mother.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'My Worst Nightmare.' 8-Year-Old Boy Dies From Flesh-Eating Bacteria After Falling From Bike > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Jan 27, 2018 5:03 PM UTC  Scott Hinkle and Sara Hebard, both of Pilot Rock, Oregon, lost their son, Liam Flanagan, 8, pictured in the cell phone photo, on Jan. 21, 2018, after an eight-day battle with a flesh-eating bacteria Scott Hinkle and Sara Hebard, both of Pilot Rock, Oregon, lost their son, Liam Flanagan, 8, pictured in the cell phone photo, on Jan. 21, 2018, after an eight-day battle with a flesh-eating bacteria E.J. Harris—East Oregonian/AP by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Jan 27, 2018 5:03 PM UTC An 8-year-old boy died after a fall off his bicycle led him to contract a [flesh eating disease](http://time.com/4984752/flesh-eating-bacteria-necrotizing-fasciitis/). Doctors said they believe Liam contracted the case of necrotizing fasciitis, from his wound touching dirt when he fell,[ _People Magazine_ reported](http://people.com/human-interest/flesh-eating-bacteria-kills-boy/). They attempted to control the infection, which ended up stretching from his ankle to his armpit, by removing patches of the [infection](http://time.com/5038564/c-diff-fecal-transplant/) from his tissue, according to the report. “The pain was so bad that he was screaming. It’s horrific. It is a horrific torture, that’s what it is. The last things I got to hear from my son was him screaming because it hurt so bad,” the boy’s mother Sara Hebard told _People._ Doctors later put Liam on [life support](http://time.com/4012840/doctors-on-life-support/) and transferred him to another hospital where he later died. “Even though this is my worst nightmare, I want to believe his death had a reason, it had a purpose. Maybe it’s to save other’s lives, because no one deserves to go through what we went through. Hold your babies tight and listen to them. Just pay attention, and don’t just pass things off as if things will be okay,” Hebard said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5121649/flesh-eating-bacteria-boy-dies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5121649/flesh-eating-bacteria-boy-dies/"},"headline":"'My Worst Nightmare.' 8-Year-Old Boy Dies From Flesh-Eating Bacteria After Falling From Bike","datePublished":"2018-01-27T17:03:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:02:36.703Z","description":"\"The pain was so bad that he was screaming. 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