Terry Homer, a Minnesota State University employee and North Mankato resident, was on a Boundary Waters canoe trip with his son-in-law last June when he accidentally pricked his thumb with a fish hook.
"Basically, a bad paper cut," said Homer, 56. The little nick let in a streptococcal infection that quickly invaded his body. Late that night his fingers had swollen to the size of sausages.
Early in the morning Mark Bartell helped his delirious and increasingly ill father-in-law the six miles back to their vehicle and to the hospital in Ely.
He was put on three antibiotic IVs and spent five days in the Ely hospital before being able to come home, where he spent five more weeks on antibiotics.
"When it happens, you figure you're sick and you'll get treated and get over it. No big deal," Homer said. It wasn't until a few days after he was at the Ely hospital, and mostly out of danger, that he realized how bad it had been.
"The doctor says, 'You don't know how sick you were. Eight more hours and you would of lost an arm. Another day in the Boundary Waters and we wouldn't be having this conversation.'"
John Hobbs, 58, an industrial water treatment salesman from Eagle Lake, went to put the dock in at the family's cabin on Madison Lake last spring.
One of the winches that raise and lower the dock slipped, the handle cracking him on the forearm. "It took a couple of nickle-size spots of skin off."
Hobbs did what he thought he should — cleaned the spots well and applied some peroxide.
"By the next afternoon, I was getting the chills and it was swelling up. I thought maybe I'd broken my arm."
By midnight he had dry heaves and his wife took him to Immanuel St. Joseph's Hospital in Mankato. X-rays showed no fractures and an orthopedic surgeon that was called in guessed what it was. "He said if this is flesh-eating, you need to be at Hennepin County in a hyperbaric chamber," Hobbs recalled. "They had the helicopter on the roof."
By 3 a.m. — just a day-and-a-half after his skin was broken — he was waiting to go into surgery.
"The surgeon said, 'We'll save what we can.' I figured I was going to lose my arm."
He awoke to find only a chunk of his forearm was gone.
The flesh-eating bacteria that attacked Homer and Hobbs came from the strep bacteria, a relatively common bug that causes strep throat and other infections. Usually, strep causes no serious problems, but when it enters cuts or wounds and works into deep tissue, it begins to kill flesh and, if it invades the blood stream, can cause death.
Strep is not as common as staph bacteria infections, but there are studies indicating serious flesh-eating strep infections are increasing.
Recently, health officials also found antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria were causing some cases of flesh-eating infections, something not seen before.
Serious infections, whether caused by strep or staph bacteria, are on the rise and often are more virulent. The only good news about strep is that, if caught early, it responds well to antibiotics and hasn't grown the drug-resistance that staph bacteria has.
No matter the type of bacteria, Homer, Hobbs and others who've become seriously ill from tissue and blood infections, say the seriousness of bacterial infections is frightening and not well known.
Homer, who has made many trips to the Boundary Waters, said he realized he was in a danger when he tried to sleep at a campsite next to Big Moose Lake.
"I got up once and passed out. By 5:30 a.m. I knew I needed a doctor."
When he had pricked his finger with a fish hook, Homer never considered it could lead to serious infection.
"How many times do you scrape or nick yourself when you're working on things? You just don't think anything of it," Homer said.
But after the hospital stay, several weeks of taking antibiotics and getting his strength back, Homer has new respect for what an unseen bacteria can do. "It makes you think about how close I came and how easy something like that can happen."
While some people save a memento after they escape a serious injury or illness, Homer said he never thought of retiring the yellow Mr. Twister lure that caused all his pain. "No, a good lure's a good lure. You never know the next walleye you might catch with it."
Hobbs said he knows now he ignored warning signs that could have saved him the pain he's gone through. Even when his arm was throbbing and swollen the night after he skinned his forearm, he still went to a local pool tournament. "My buddy saw me and said, 'You should go to the doctor,'" Hobbs said. "But you just don't think it could be something like this," he said.
"From 4:30 Thursday night when it started hurting until Friday afternoon I should of gone to the doctor and they probably could have caught it before it got worse."
His advice to others: "Believe your body. When your body hurts and swells up and you know it's not the normal kind of pain, go in right away."
Since recovering, Hobbs has received skin grafts on his forearm and feels lucky it wasn't worse. "I feel fortunate. I got a nasty scar, but other than that my hand works well and everything."
The normal spring day that began with putting in the dock and ending up in surgery has given Hobbs a different view of life.
"Every time I hug my kids and grandkids, it means a lot more."
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