Sonoma State University student who joined the Army loses leg to flesh-eating bacteria

Before 2019 was one week old, Dez Del Barba had embarked on an adventure, one that mirrored the path previously traveled by his mother and several relatives.

The Stockton native was 21 years old, a senior at Sonoma State University, just months from completing his bachelor’s degree in business management.

But on Jan. 7, he was on his way to the U.S. Army post at Fort Benning in Georgia, ready for basic training as a prelude to a possible career in the military.

College graduation could wait, he figured. He could wait a year, and then he would get to receive his diploma on the same day as his girlfriend, Jules Ruiz, who is a junior at Sonoma State.

“I had a few reservations before he went,” Ruiz recalled last week. “Personally, if I was in his shoes, I would want to finish my degree first. I told him that. But I was supportive of the choice he made at the time.”

It was one month after his arrival at Fort Benning, beginning with what seemed like an innocent sore throat on Feb. 7, that Dez Del Barba’s basic training was replaced by something much more basic - an exhausting and prolonged fight for survival.

It wasn’t until Feb. 11 that Del Barba began receiving proper medical treatment, and by then the A Streptococcus bacteria he first had been afflicted ?with had developed into the flesh-eating disease known as necrotizing fasciitis.

By Feb. 13, Del Barba’s left lower leg had been amputated and there was fear he might also lose his right leg and both arms, according to his father, Mark Del Barba. At least once, Mark Del Barba said, it was 50-50 whether his son would live.

Two months after Dez Del Barba first became ill, he is free of the flesh-eating disease. But that freedom has come at the unfathomable price of one leg, 17 surgeries and the prospect of a year or more of grueling physical therapy.

These days, Del Barba spends his days at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio struggling to relearn how to walk and enduring daily wound care that is so painful he has to be sedated.

“He gets very anxious,” Mark Del Barba said, struggling to maintain his composure. “The past few nights before he goes to bed, he’s in tears and shaking, wondering what to expect.”

Their son’s ordeal has uprooted the lives of his parents. Mark Del Barba is a correctional officer at Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy. Dez Del Barba’s mother, Kamini Del Barba, works in the human resources department at Stockton Unified School District. Mark said both of the couple’s employers have been fully understanding of their need to be with their son, who received treatment at hospitals in Georgia and Alabama before being brought to the state-of-the-art military facility in San Antonio in mid-February.

Del Barba’s parents are receiving free lodging at Fisher House in San Antonio, which provides housing to relatives of wounded or sick members of the military.

Their emotions run the range daily from sorrow to thankfulness to anger - sorrow for what Del Barba has suffered, thankfulness he is alive and anger about the treatment their son did not receive at Fort Benning.

According to a timeline compiled by Mark Del Barba, his son went for treatment of a sore throat Feb. 7. An initial test for strep throat was negative, and he was given ibuprofen. A 24-hour test also was taken.

On Feb. 8, Del Barba returned for treatment because of leg pain and saw a physical therapist. That same day, the 24-hour test came back positive.

In the background, Dez told his parents that a drill sergeant had repeatedly discouraged him from seeking medical treatment and warned that it could lead him to have to restart basic training.

“Fort Benning is investigating the claim trainees were prevented from seeking medical care,” spokesman Ben Garrett said in a written statement. “Whenever there is an unintended occurrence or condition associated with care or service of a patient, it is Army policy to initiate a clinical quality review.”

On Feb. 10, Dez Del Barba sought help for severe leg and throat pain. Once again, he was released and given ibuprofen, his parents say. On Feb. 11, he was brought to Fort Benning’s emergency room, then moved to nearby Piedmont Columbus Hospital. Finally, Dez Del Barba was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, and within hours, his parents were on their way to Georgia.

Citing privacy laws, Fort Benning spokesman Garrett said he could not explain why Del Barba did not receive timely and proper treatment until he was rushed to a civilian hospital.

Garrett also said that given the severity of Del Barba’s illness, Fort Benning has screened its entire trainee population of nearly 10,000, treated those who tested positive for A Streptococcus, administered azithromycin to nearly 10,000 Initial Entry Trainees and is giving bicillin injections to all trainees.

“The initial results of Fort Benning’s responsive preventive efforts have been positive, and all new trainees arriving to the installation are receiving preventive medicine to eradicate future Streptococcus,” Garrett said.

Mark Del Barba says he is angry and wishes he could file a lawsuit. But that’s not an option, he said, because of the Feres Doctrine, which prevents those injured as a result of military service from suing the federal government.

“We’re not looking for money,” he said. “That’s not our concern. Our concern is why this happened, and somebody needs to be responsible.”

Mark Del Barba said if he could sue, he’d give money to the organizations that have reached out to provide comfort and care during a nightmare that is at two months and counting.

He said he and his wife put on brave faces when they are with their son in the hospital. They fall apart, he said, when they have to leave him.

Jules Ruiz, Dez Del Barba’s girlfriend, said one of his qualities that she adores is his sense of humor. And recently, Dez managed a bit of gallows humor when talking with his parents about his plight.

“He asked (a caregiver) two weeks ago where his leg was at,” Mark Del Barba said. “He was told his leg was removed and in Alabama.”

Dez Del Barba had an idea.

“Maybe I can get it back,” he said, “and hang it on my wall.”