Washington Redskins quarterback Alex Smith nearly lost his entire leg after a flesh-eating bacteria that developed after he had surgery to repair the compound fracture he suffered during a game against the Houston Texans in November 2018.
Smith’s wife, Elizabeth, recalled doctors discovering her husband was suffering from “necrotizing fasciitis” and had a rare bacteria called Aeromonas hydrophila in his bloodstream.
“So Alex has a flesh-eating bacteria that’s eating away at his leg,” Elizabeth said. “He’s septic and, essentially, dying. We’re being inundated with medical language. Family, friends, everybody is on high emotion.”
This is how his leg looked after eight surgeries:
Smith got injured following a sack by Kareem Jackson and J.J. Watt on Nov. 18, 2018. He has not been back on the field since, but that doesn’t mean he he’s retired.
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Smith sat out the entire 2019 season to rehab, but he told Jeremy Schapp this past February that he hopes to resume his football career.
“There’s enough there that I can go out there and play. … Knowing that, yeah, failure is a possibility. … I need to prove that I can come back and play quarterback in the NFL, and if I can do that, that would be great and it’ll get figured out,” he said.
