Post by TheShadow on Jul 26, 2007 18:38:23 GMT -5
www.insidebayarea.com
by Dave Newhouse, STAFF WRITER
Oakland Raiders legend Jim Otto is fighting yet another physical
battle. Doctors at Stanford Medical Center are trying to save his right
leg.
"It's the weakest part of his body," Sally Otto, his wife, said Tuesday.
"His leg is so complex. Doctors give it a 20 percent chance."
Jim Otto has had 50 major surgeries, by his wife's count, since retiring
from a Hall of Fame career as an iron-man center. He didn't miss a game
in 15 seasons with the Silver and Black.
But playing in 210 consecutive games, with injuries that would have
sidelined most anyone else, took their toll afterward. All of Otto's
surgeries, and all his artificial joints, destroyed his body's immunity,
thereby making him susceptible to infection.
"The skin on his leg is so thin and frail that it invites anything," his
wife said. "This is the fourth time this has happened."
For now, doctors are treating Otto's condition with antibiotics, to
avoid surgery. He could be released as early as Wednesday, then will
return to his Auburn home, where he faces six weeks of intravenous
feeding.
Otto has been through, at least, three near-death experiences, but his
wife doesn't believe that is the situation in this case.
"Jim told me, 'Here I am, causing us more grief,'" Sally Otto said. "I
said, 'Jim, the thing is, you're still here. We've got good doctors.'"
Otto's annual charity golf tournament in Auburn later this month had to
be canceled.
"Doctors didn't want Jim to stress," his wife explained. "Jim goes like
he's 29. No matter what, nothing holds him back. His (special projects)
job with the Raiders is the greatest job in the world, because he's
working, he's busy, his mind's active, he's talking to people."
But with Otto supposed to be house-bound for six weeks, and with Raiders
training camp starting in a month...
"You think I haven't thought about that," Sally Otto said.
Jim Otto's mother in Wausau, Wis., celebrates her 90th birthday in late
July. All her children are invited, and plane tickets have been
purchased.
"We'll just have to see," Sally said.
Doctors at UC Davis and Stanford told Sally Otto that despite her
husband's unheard-of number of physical ordeals, all football- related,
that it's football that is keeping him alive.
"It's because he's a football player that his heart and lungs are
strong," she said. "It's from all that conditioning."