With Spirit Intact

A neat towel rests over what is left of her legs and a wide scar appears on her hand where a finger used to be, but Ana Maria Garcia Serrano, 30, who survived a near-fatal battle with flesh-eating bacteria in February, says her spirit is intact.

“I am fine, and even through all of this, I never lost my sense of humor,” she said, explaining how neither she nor her husband, Roberto, have permitted themselves to become depressed. Sinking into despair, they said, would mean they might never recover.

“We can’t let sadness get us down or we’ll go under,” said Roberto Garcia, 32. “But it takes mental discipline. It would be really easy to lose control.”

Almost 10 years after the couple met while dancing one night to ranchera music, their lives have changed in almost every way. Their roles in the family--once clearly defined--now are indistinct. He does housework and tends to the couple’s three sons--something almost unheard of before--while his wife learns to walk with prosthetic limbs.

So far she has walked up to 20 feet between parallel bars during rehabilitation sessions. Her doctors have praised her for this feat, but she only sighs. “Well, it’s not that easy.”

Roberto Garcia, in turn, is amazed at the amount of labor it takes to run a household. “I wash dishes and wash clothes and cook and take the boys to school and go and get them--it’s four trips a day!”

Soft-spoken and willing to let her husband do most of the talking, Ana Maria Garcia can’t help but laugh when her husband describes his trials with burned pancakes, the son who must have sugar in his milk, and the other who won’t eat if he has not personally seen his father wash his hands before cooking.

While their parents spoke, Fidel, 8, Daniel, 6, and Roberto, 2, played with a friend on the patio that once was a dirt run for chickens but has been newly paved to accommodate their mother’s wheelchair.

Awakened at 1 a.m. by an ambulance’s siren and paramedics the night their mother was taken to Anaheim Memorial Medical Center in Anaheim, the boys were terrified that their mother might die in the hospital. They are elated now that she is home. They do not mention her illness. Fidel is unnerved by the family trauma, but the two youngest sons seem unaware, their parents say.

But in whispers, while the boys played a few feet away, the Garcias wondered why such a thing happened to an impoverished family already struggling with illness. Roberto Garcia, who formerly worked at a recycling facility, fell into a garbage pit six months ago and tore the ligaments in both arms.

His shoulders still ache, and the family had been surviving on meager disability benefits, living in a rented one-room house.

“A person doesn’t expect something like this--it makes you ask God, ‘Why do this to a family--a decent family with three children?’ ” Roberto Garcia said.

His wife: “There are people out there stealing from stores.”

“Killing people for their money,” her husband said, finishing her thought.

“Holding people up or being gang members,” added Ana Maria Garcia, rubbing the wound where her finger used to be. “Why do this to us? Why to me?”

But her faith in God, which sustained her from the beginning of her illness, remains solid, she said.

*

What at first was a sprained ankle on Feb. 8 turned into an infection that raced through her body. The rare bacteria, a virulent form of the microbe that causes strep throat, forced doctors to remove infected flesh. She was released from the hospital March 3.

Although rare, flesh-eating bacteria have always existed. They prey on small cuts or other injuries, according to Mary Ann Adams, Anaheim Memorial’s infection control coordinator.

Officials estimate that 10,000 to 15,000 people are infected nationally each year, but only 10% to 15% of patients contract gangrene as a result of the infection. Many people carry microbes of the bacteria in one form or another--just usually not in such a virulent form.

Hospital officials called Ana Maria Garcia’s recovery miraculous and say she continues to improve steadily. But she has a long road of rehabilitation ahead, and her husband will not be able to work for another three months.

Neighborhood restaurants and donations to a trust fund set up by the Anaheim Firefighters Assn. have helped the family stay afloat, Roberto Garcia said, and people who recognize him or his wife frequently offer their help or good wishes. When he takes the children out to eat, restaurant owners rarely charge him, and Carl’s Jr. has given the family lifetime passes for hamburgers.

But the family’s crisis also has attracted those who want some of the money too. One agent tried to sell the family a vacation package to Laughlin. A Realtor swung by their home unexpectedly in a limousine to take them shopping for houses. And a “movie producer” said he would make a film of the Garcias’ story--but only if they put down $20,000 for the project.

Most of the donations and charitable offerings, however, have been sincere.

“They are such good, humble people who have really been overwhelmed by the help and attention they’ve received,” said Richard Chavez, president of the Anaheim Firefighters Assn. “They’ve got a lot to handle right now, but the biggest thing right now is just that she’s back home.”