PORT TOWNSEND — The Jefferson County prosecuting attorney returned to his office this week after an infection had sidelined him for more than a month.
“Even though we are down one position, my staff stepped in to take up the slack,” Scott Rosekrans said Wednesday after he returned to work Monday.
“They did pretty well without the elected in the way,” he added.
Rosekrans was vacationing in Arizona in early June and was out playing a few rounds of golf when he inadvertently walked into an 18-inch-high cactus.
It gouged out a small laceration in his lower left leg.
He picked out several spines and returned home, thinking little of it.
But two weeks later, the leg swelled up, and Rosekrans pulled another spine out of the wound.
He pushed down on the cut, and a few more spines popped out.
The following day, he was feeling worse and went to the Jefferson Healthcare hospital emergency room in Port Townsend.
Personnel decided he needed emergency surgery.
After the surgery, doctors determined that a skin graft was necessary, and it was accomplished using skin from Rosekrans’ thigh.
Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Tristan McGovern, who performed the graft, said instances in which foreign objects are embedded in the body can cause life-threatening infections.
Specifically about Rosekrans, McGovern said: “It was a significant event. There was tissue loss, and this wound would not have healed by itself.”
During Rosekrans’ absence, he kept in touch through telephone and email, directing Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Chris Ashcraft, who heads the criminal division, and Chief Civil Deputy Prosecuting Attorney David Alvarez, who leads the civil division, when needed.
This worked well in most instances, but there were two criminal cases he could not prepare for, so they were rescheduled, he said.
In one of these, the defendant jumped bail, and a warrant was issued, so that trial has been indefinitely postponed, he added.
Rosekrans said he was very pleased with the service at Jefferson Healthcare, and he was happy he didn’t have to travel out of town for treatment.
He could be limping for a few months but felt fit enough Wednesday to climb three flights of stairs to the top of the clock tower for an aerial view of Port Townsend.
Rosekrans said his doctors have advised him to keep the injured leg elevated whenever possible, and he often sets it on the surface of his desk.
While doing so, he is mindful he should keep the leg away from the small cactus on the desk that was given to him as a joke gift by his assistant, Jan Chadbourne.
Rosekrans is the second high-ranking Jefferson County justice official to suffer a severe health setback this summer.
Superior Court Judge Craddock Verser was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July.
Doctors said the cancer was stage one, the earliest stage of cancer. The most severe is stage four.
Verser begins chemotherapy treatment today, according to his wife, Joyce Verser.
Treatment is expected to last for 10 weeks and be followed by surgery to remove the tumor.
Verser’s treatment is a joint effort between the University of Washington Northwest Hospital and Medical Center and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.
________
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
