Bacteria-Stricken Cyclist Returns : Medicine: Recovered from the so-called flesh-eating disease, Bernie Donner pedals 106 miles on a journey of gratitude.

One year after almost losing his athletic career--and his life--to the so-called flesh-eating bacteria, triathlete Bernie Donner chose an appropriate vehicle to carry him 106 miles back to the hospital that saved him: a bicycle.

Donner, whose wife, Laura, followed him in a car on the eight-hour ride from his Santa Barbara home to the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital, said his motive was twofold.

First, he told a gathering of doctors and reporters, he needed to prove to himself and the world that he had fully recovered from the rare and life-threatening necrotizing fasciitis.

And second, he said, he wanted to thank the medical personnel who had nursed him back to health and to encourage other disease victims who wonder about their own ability to recover.

“The last time I was here, I didn’t know if I was going to have my leg,” Donner said, brushing aside tears and embracing his wife. “Now you can see I have them both, and then some.”

Doctors at the hospital explained that the virulent strain of the bacteria, which more commonly causes strep throat, probably entered Donner’s body through a cut he got by shaving his legs--a common practice cyclists use to reduce wind resistance.

By the next day, Donner felt as if he had the flu. The day after, he was rushed to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in shock.

Doctors there determined that the bacteria had destroyed a 6-by-12-inch swath of fascia--the tissue that connects skin with muscle--in his right thigh, and within hours they surgically removed the damaged tissue.

From there, Donner went to Sherman Oaks, where a burn team flushed out the bacteria with use of a pressurized hyperbaric chamber, which forces extra oxygen into the blood.

Then came a series of four more surgeries--three to remove dead tissue, and a final one to graft thin strips of skin from his healthy left leg onto the open wounds on his right leg.

“The survival rate of his injury is pretty close to zero,” said Dr. Peter Grossman, a doctor on the team that treated Donner.

“It says a great deal about Bernie, about not only his desire to live, but to lead a normal life--that has allowed him to do what he’s doing today,” said Grossman, who is the son of A. Richard Grossman, the physician who gave his name to the burn center.

“It’s nothing short of miraculous.”

The 6-foot-3, 230-pound athlete pedaled into the hospital grounds to cheers from the personnel who gathered to welcome him back. He cut a huge sheet cake decorated with an image of a dark-haired cyclist and afterward talked about his road back to health.

*

Other than some swelling in the injured leg, which doctors said could last up to another year, Donner said, he feels great. He achieved his goal of cycling more than before and assured himself that he is more of an athlete than he was when he came down with the rare disease, he said.

“It was the most difficult 12 months of my life with a lot of blood, a lot of sweat, a lot of tears,” Donner said. “We worked hard. I wouldn’t give up, and that’s why we’re here.”

For now, the former summer camp lifeguard and swim instructor said he has a new goal. Donner plans to start working toward a master’s degree in education at UC Santa Barbara in August.

Donner hopes to teach high school English and history and coach basketball, he said.