Triathlete Gets Surgery to Save Leg From Strep Infection

Triathlete Bernard Donner underwent surgery Friday morning to save his left leg from the ravages of “flesh-eating bacteria,” which apparently entered his body through a shaving cut as he bicycled near his Santa Barbara home Sunday.

Donner remained in critical condition, but it is encouraging that the streptococcus infection has not spread beyond the leg, said Dr. A. Richard Grossman, medical director of the Sherman Oaks Hospital burn center.

Grossman said he and Dr. Michel Brones, another burn center surgeon, had temporarily covered an opening on Donner’s left thigh about 12 inches long and 6 inches wide with cadaver skin, a practice also used in treating burn victims. Next week, the doctors hope to begin replacing the cadaver skin with Donner’s own skin.

The wound was the result of necrotizing faciitis--a rare manifestation of the same Group A streptococcus bacteria that causes the common, usually harmless, strep throat. Since Donner felt the first pains Sunday night, the infection has destroyed half the muscle tissue in his left leg, Grossman said.

Grossman said the infection has not spread. “At this point we’re treating him like any other burn patient,” he said. “I’m encouraged today, but we’re not going to be out of the woods until he walks out of here. However, we hope to be having him walking with crutches in two to three weeks.”

Until his next round of skin grafts, Donner will spend much of his time in Sherman Oaks Hospital’s hyperbaric chamber, which promotes healing by forcing pressurized oxygen into the blood.

A longtime Santa Barbara lifeguard and swim camp counselor, Donner also runs, bikes and swims in triathalons.With rehabilitation, Grossman said, “I believe he’ll go back and try and run again.”

In a news conference, Grossman also sought to allay public fears of the infection.