Cuts, scratches and puncture wounds were a daily part of the business.
“I used to step on nails all the time,” Jacobson said. “As long as I had my tetanus shot, I didn't worry at all about it.”
“I didn't really even notice it,” he said. “My wife saw the little spot of blood. She pulled it out and put some hydrogen peroxide on it. And I didn't think about it again.”
His wife, Brenda, didn't forget.
A couple of days later, she asked to see the bottom of his foot. She saw a little black ring around the wound. It didn't look like much to worry about.
A few more days went by and Jacobson's shoulder began to ache. He noticed a golf ball-size lump in his groin area. And when he and his wife took another look at his foot, they were surprised to see it had turned blackish yellow.
“I told her right then I better go and see a doctor,” he said.
Jacobson knew he was in trouble as soon as the emergency room physician at Marcus Daly Hospital took a look at his foot.
“He quarantined the room immediately,” Jacobson said. “By then my foot was bleeding from the top and bottom and between the toes. He told me ‘Randy, you're going to be here for a while.' ”
Jacobson had a staphylococcus aureus infection in his foot and it was spreading.
Surgeons tried twice to cut out the infection. By the time they were finished, they told him there wasn't enough of his foot left to save. It needed to be amputated.
And the bad news didn't stop there.
A day later, Jacobson was told he was going to lose his leg up just below his knee.
“The infection just moved so fast,” he said. “It all happened just within a couple of days. No one ever expects that will happen to you.”
Staphylococcus aureus is a common bacteria that can turn deadly.
According to a 2005 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, deaths caused by staph infections worldwide outnumber HIV/AIDS deaths, said Frank DeLeo, acting chief of the Rocky Mountain Human Bacterial Pathogenesis program at Hamilton's Rocky Mountain Laboratory.
Staph is the leading cause of bacterial infection in the developed world, although no one is sure why some people are more susceptible to infection than others, DeLeo said.
“Everyone is exposed,” he said. “It's usually spread person to person.”
If an infection looks like it's spreading, DeLeo said it's best to seek medical help as soon as possible.
“We found out afterward that staph lives on us all the time, but I had no idea that something like this could happen,” Jacobson said.
He had always taken pride in his health.
“The folks at the hospital asked me who my doctor was and I told them ‘Dr. Ellis.' They said Dr. Ellis has been retired for 20 years,” he said. “They told me that I'd probably need to get somebody new.”
Jacobson went into the hospital on Oct. 5 and stayed there for two weeks.
There was plenty of time to start to worry about the medical bills, the loss of employment and even the simple logistics of how to get a wheelchair into the couple's bathroom.
“Money is going to be tight,” Jacobson said. “I don't have a job now. I'm not going to be able to go to work until I can get a new leg.”
The couple doesn't have health insurance.
Brenda works as the head housekeeper at the Hamilton Best Western Motel.
“When he got out of the hospital, we had to pick up a prescription that cost $450,” she said. “That was my whole paycheck right down to the ‘T.' We've both worked hard for our whole lives.
“You never think anything like this is going to happen to you.”
Their plight didn't go unnoticed.
People from around the Bitterroot Valley have turned out to help one of their own.
One day, some folks brought in a backhoe and dump truck to level off the couple's front entryway to make it more wheelchair accessible. Others have helped remodel the bathroom. Some volunteered to rebuild a van so Jacobson will have some way to get around.
And still more have donated money into a fund at Farmers State Bank to help the couple meet some medical expenses and eventually pay for Jacobson's new leg.
“It's been overwhelming,” he said. “Some of these people I don't even know. We didn't ask for help and they just came. I can't tell you how much that means.”
The 52-year-old is planning on getting back to work just as soon as he can.
“They tell me I won't be able to walk for a year,” Jacobson said. “But I'm going to fool them. I'm not just going to sit around here all the time. It would drive me crazy.”
He's got about $1,300 set aside for a basic new leg.
“They say it costs about $6,000 for a Volkswagen,” he said. “I'd rather have a Chevy truck. I certainly don't need a Cadillac. It doesn't really matter what it looks like. I just need to be able to get around.”
“Overall, I have to say that I'm really in pretty good spirits considering everything,” Jacobson said. “It's all because of all these people who've helped me. This is just a great community.”
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