Infection hospitalizes Shurtleff again

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is hoping to be released from the hospital this afternoon so he can vote.

Shurtleff's last-minute campaigning for re-election was halted Saturday when he was hospitalized again for a staph infection in his left leg. It is the second time the attorney general has been hospitalized for a staph infection in a leg that was shattered in a motorcycle crash last year.

"The infection wasn't unexpected because of all the holes in his leg, and the doctors took a very aggressive approach," attorney general's spokesman Paul Murphy said Monday. "They did some new X-rays and found some bone growth, and there's good news about him keeping his leg."

On Monday, Shurtleff was alert and working from his hospital bed, keeping in contact with staffers via e-mail.

"You can't keep a good man down," Murphy said of his boss.

Shurtleff recently underwent an unusual surgery to save his left leg. After months of broken bones not healing, Shurtleff had his leg placed in metal halos with wires and pins being used to affix the bones to the rings. It is supposed to help the bones grow.

Murphy said the latest staph infection was caught by doctors, and the attorney general's prognosis is good. In an interview with the Deseret News in August, Shurtleff revealed that his doctors had discussed amputation if his leg did not heal this time.

"You think about that and you're like, 'OK,"' he said at the time. "I don't want to lose my leg."

In recent weeks, Shurtleff has made campaign appearances as the Republican incumbent stumps for re-election against Democrat Jean Welch Hill. At one debate, he used a cardboard box to elevate his leg as he sported specially tailored pants to accommodate the massive halos and the wires visibly sticking into his leg.

Shurtleff was injured while practicing for a motorcycle rally to raise money for a memorial for police officers killed in the line of duty. His Harley-Davidson motorcycle hit a patch of gravel and slid, laying the bike down on his leg and shattering it.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com