Encinitas boy dies, Fallbrook coach recovering, as two cases of drug-resistant Staph shake schools

By: TOM PFINGSTEN - North County Times | Monday, January 28, 2008 11:03 PM PST ∞

NORTH COUNTY - A wrestling coach at Fallbrook High School appears to be recovering after checking into a hospital last week with a potentially deadly form of Staph infection, school officials said Monday.

It was the second notable case involving the deadly bacteria in North County in the past month. A 13-year-old Encinitas boy, Brian Carbaugh, died Jan. 19 at Rady Children's Hospital after contracting the antibiotic-resistant bug, a medical examiner's investigator said Monday.

Brian was a seventh-grader at Diegueno Middle School. His family could not be reached Monday.

At Fallbrook High, the wrestling and weight rooms were closed for three days and disinfected after the coach became ill, said Student Services Director Peter Fellios. He said district employees have closely monitored the situation and haven't seen any more infections.

The coach, Roye Oliver, 50, was hospitalized with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes as a bacterial infection that is also resistant to penicillin and amoxicillin. Oliver did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Fellios would not name the coach who became ill, but said only that a wrestling coach contracted a boil-like infection on his arm, and that it became serious after a first doctor's visit, where he was prescribed antibiotics.

Fellios said the episode began when the coach went to the doctor on Saturday, Jan. 19.

"Apparently, he felt a little bump on his elbow and it just got bigger and bigger, developing like a boil," he said. "They lanced it, put him on antibiotics and sent him home."

Instead of healing, the infection got worse, and when he went to the doctor again last week, he was hospitalized at Kaiser in San Diego, Fellios said.

Now, he's home and recovering.

"Had it gone into his bloodstream, it would have been a lot worse," said Fellios.

Ruben Leon, a trainer at No Mercy School of Wrestling in Vista, said that Oliver was recovering this week after the infection put him in the hospital.

"This is the kind of thing that, when it happens, it kind of knocks the wind out of you for a while," said Leon, who has known Oliver for more than 25 years.

Fellios said the areas where the coach was thought to have been were cordoned off and sterilized.

"We haven't heard of any other cases," he added. "In fact, the lady from the public health department told me that he probably contracted it someplace else, not here at the school."

Oliver does not teach at Fallbrook High, but is the head wrestling coach, a former three-time All-American at Arizona State and, according to his friends, a fierce competitor who won a world championship last August in Istanbul, Turkey.

In Encinitas, San Dieguito Union High School District officials said they do not know how or where Brian Carbaugh became infected but said that they follow state guidelines for the cleaning and sanitizing of athletic facilities and equipment.

"We've tried as much as possible to jump on this even before we had an incident," said Eric Dill, the district's risk manager.

Competitive sports programs at the district's middle schools are run by the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Dieguito, where Brian competed in after-school wrestling.

Speculation that the Encinitas boy had contracted the Staph infection at one of the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Dieguito reached the organization's administration on Friday, said Keith Padgett, executive director.

"I'm a little puzzled that people think he got it from us," Padgett said. "We take all precautions, we sanitize our mats before every practice and every meet and follow the same procedure any wrestling program does."

"We're going to work with some experts and look at all of our facilities to see if there are additional precautions we can take."

Drug-resistant Staph infections have gained notoriety in recent years, especially when they appear in high school wrestling programs.

Leon, the Vista wrestling club leader, said infections are always a concern at meets, and that ringworm is the most common.

"Most of the high schools now are not looking at it just in terms of wrestling - it's all the sports," said Leon. "Wrestling is the point man simply because of the high degree of contact."

He said coaches face two concerns with illness - the health of their players and the success of the team.

If an ailment starts going around, he said, "There goes your season, no matter whether you're a wrestling coach or a track coach."

On the health and safety side, he said coaches he knows have told him schools have been required to post written hygiene procedures.

"Everybody I've talked to is taking it really seriously," he said.

Staff writer Adam Kaye contributed to this report.

Contact staff writer Tom Pfingsten at (760) 740-3516 or tpfingsten@nctimes.com.

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