3. Flesh-eating bacteria in his leg that threatened his life.
There were four different types of bacteria in Smith's leg; two were fairly common while two were not, but none of them were regular bacteria, Malekzadeh said.
Malekzadeh is still not sure how the bacteria got into Smith's leg, but they were causing the black spots. It was dead skin and muscle tissue caused by necrotizing fasciitis, otherwise known as flesh-eating disease.
The disease acts quickly, so the surgeons had to act accordingly. What's more, the bacteria was moving up his leg. The focus went from simply saving Smith's leg to saving his life, and doctors were uncertain if they could control the infection.
"If we can't, then what do we do?" asked head team physician Dr. Robin West.
The process took days. It took eight debridements, which is the removal of damaged tissue from the body, to finally get the infection under control, but it came at a cost: much of the muscle on Smith's leg was gone.
Smith had two options: amputation or limb salvage, which would involve taking muscles and skin from other parts of his body to replace those taken away from him.
"I didn't want to have to be choosing between these two things," Smith said. "But I decided to do the limb salvage, to try to save it."
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Five Takeaways From Alex Smith's E:60 "Project 11" Documentary - Redskins.com
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