Surviving a terrible disease

Survivor is a relative word. For those in chronic pain or terminal, it might be a fleeting bit of semantics, but when you beat a disease that was eating your flesh and left you near death, every extra second is a bonus.

"You kill it, or it kills you," said Bo Salisbury, who has relished the past 10 years living in Nevada City after surviving necrotizing fasciitis.

The disease is triggered by a bacterial streptococcus infection that is introduced or already in a person who suffers a minor trauma, like a cut or abrasion, according to the National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation.

That's what happened to Salisbury after he got kicked on the left ankle playing soccer and a minor pain grew into an excruciating nightmare.

The disease comes on quickly and releases toxins and enzymes that destroy soft tissue, hence the sensational "flesh-eating" moniker often used to describe it, according to the foundation..

"It's like a burn," said Salisbury, now 53. "You have to remove all the dead tissue and then get extensive skin grafts.

"I think I lost as much soft tissue as you can before amputation, and my leg was in danger of being amputated all the time," Salisbury said. However, the fact that his left leg wasn't removed still brought Salisbury grief.

He endured two full months of total inactivity to undergo the skin grafts needed to save the leg, but that left the rest of his body emaciated and he had muscle loss in his right shoulder.

"I couldn't stand or sit up," Salisbury said. "It took quite awhile to get back to full strength."



Lasting effects

While he was able to return to work with the U.S. Post Office and now serves as the postmaster for Camptonville, Salisbury lives with some tough results. He still has to be careful not to harm the skin grafts on his left leg, which resembles a burn victim's.

"I have to exercise because my vascular system was weakened and I have problems with my skin drying otherwise, so I walk, jog and stay vertical," Salisbury said. "I have to be careful not to get sunburned because it can dry out (and destroy) the skin grafts and I don't want to go through that again, that's painful."

The grafted skin has no pigment or natural oils in it, so Salisbury often spreads a special cream on it. He takes other medication to combat chronic hives which came on with the disease.

"I don't mountain bike anymore because any large loss of skin on my leg means skin grafts," Salisbury said.

The postmaster's right arm constantly feels like he just hit his funny bone, and muscle loss in the shoulder means tennis is out.

"I can't throw a baseball anymore and I can't surf, I can't push myself up with this arm," he said.



Doctors and the Lord

While Salisbury still has his problems, he has life and an obligation.

"I don't want to waste time, I need to make a return on the investment," afforded him by the doctors at the UC-Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, his family, and the $1.5 million bill his Post Office health insurance mostly paid.

While he acknowledges the medical community did an outstanding job to keep him alive, Salisbury also credits the Lord and his faith for his survival.

"It was totally miraculous," Salisbury said. "I'm loving life and I'm glad I made it. I was pretty sure I was a goner."

According to the foundation, necrotizing fasciitis is not recurring, but doctors have not ruled another new case occurring for Salisbury if he is subjected to the bacteria again, he said.

The only prevention he knows of is washing your hands to rid yourself of the streptococcus bacteria that is the same that causes "strep throat."

The postmaster said a sign of necrotizing fasciitis is, "When you get a wound and the pain is way out of proportion to what it is. I thought I had a broken ankle and it wasn't."

Other signs of the disease include fever, redness at the wound, dizziness, confusion, a red rash over large parts of the body and flu-like feelings, according to The National Centers for Disease Control.

To learn more, log on to the disease foundation's Web site at www.nnff.org.



To contact Senior Staff Writer Dave Moller, e-mail dmoller@theunion.com or call 477-4237.



What is necrotizing fasciitis?

NF is a bacterial streptococcus (strep) infection that hides itself from your immune system and produces enzymes and poisons that kill soft tissue and fascia, which is the sheath that covers muscles. While most who get it can be cured, it can be fatal and speed is paramount in treatment because the infection spreads rapidly.

Information from the National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation.