A Halifax woman is struggling to stay alive after unexpectedly being diagnosed with a flesh-eating disease.

Colleen Hilton thought she had the flu, but loved ones say within hours they were watching their wife and mom dying in front of them.

“She went from a perfectly healthy person to being hooked up to 14 IV bottles and they're putting in a breathing tube, and it just went that quick in the space of hours,” says Colleen’s husband, Larry Hilton.

Larry says Colleen had never shown symptoms of the disease.

“The night before we had been out shoveling snow and cleaning the sidewalk. She was perfectly fine, nothing wrong with her,” he says.

The speed was a sign of necrotizing fasciitis, also known as flesh-eating disease.

“She had a very low chance of surviving the night, and that's when it really smacked me in the face how serious it was,” says Larry.

But Colleen defied those odds. She was moved from the Dartmouth General to the QEII and was placed in an induced coma. Larry was told by doctors that it was the result of Group A streptococcus, an infection that usually causes strep throat. But in extreme cases, the bacteria can be invasive.

According to the Nova Scotia Health Authority, there were 19 confirmed cases of Strep A in 2016. Seven of them were severe.

Not all Strep A cases result in necrotizing fasciitis, but there have been a couple confirmed cases in Nova Scotia in recent years.

“We do see more strep throat in the winter time and severe strep infections are a rare, but well-known complication of influenza,” says Dr. Todd Hatchette, the health authority’s chief of microbiology.

Some statistics put the rate at about 90 to 200 cases in Canada every year. About 20 to 30 per cent of those are fatal.

For now, the QEII has become the Hiltons’ new home.

“The response here at the hospital, the staff, has been phenomenal,” says Larry. “We're getting people reaching out to us wanting to know if they can help and, we really appreciate it. For us, it's a life-changing thing.”

A GoFundMe page has been started for Colleen, who is also now facing amputation.

Larry Hilton says all that matters is his wife of 35 years is still by his side.

“The other day she was sitting up and they actually put her in a wheelchair,” he says. “She's on the road upwards.”

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Laura Brown.