Terrorism isn’t the only threat on the mind of South Bend’s airport director this September 11th.

John Schalliol is battling a MRSA infection. MRSA stands for methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus. It’s a strain of staph that is resistant to many antibiotics.

“I thought it was eboli, you know, that horrible virus that eats you alive,” said Schalliol.

Schalliol says the first time he heard about MRSA was when he was told he had it the Thursday before Labor Day.

“I had picked up a couple of bug bites on my left calf,” he began. “But I scratched it Saturday, I played with it Sunday and Monday, Tuesday I really squeezed cause it was getting bigger, and then Thursday it attacked me.”

Schalliol says his doctor entered the wound and removed material about the size of a small cellphone.

Schalliol spent four days in the hospital. His recovery also requires the constant use of a wound vac. “It’s a vacuum pump with kind of a suction cup applied directly over the wound itself,” Schalliol said.

Today, Schalliol was back at work lucky to be alive, and knowing things could have been worse.

“I was just totally unaware that this kind of thing was out there. The hospital people see it all the time,” Schalliol said. “Dr. Walsh said when he came in,’ I wonder who my first MRSA person will be today,’ and I was it. He says he usually sees two or three a day.”

While MRSA may not be uncommon, it is perhaps often misunderstood.

“Now, of course, I’m looking at every bump and shaving cut or anything and thinking is this going to turn into one of these?”

Most MRSA cases occur in health care settings including hospitals and nursing homes. Schalliol’s wife was hospitalized with pneumonia around the same time his problems surfaced.

Both have now returned home to continue their recoveries.

Schalliol says the morale of the story is “don’t pick at bug bites.”

Staph bacteria are generally harmless unless they enter the body through a cut or wound.