INFANT RECOVERING FROM DEADLY INFECTION.

Byline: Daily News

An Oxnard infant whose body was ravaged by flesh-killing bacteria was recovering from surgery Friday after doctors transplanted skin to cover her wounds.

Eleven-month-old Rosa Olvera was in critical but stable condition at Northridge Hospital Medical Center following Wednesday's operation, in which 350 square centimeters of skin from her buttocks were transplanted to her right side and back.

Earlier this month, Rosa lost nearly one-fifth of her skin to a fast-moving infection of normally harmless bacteria that, under certain circumstances, can turn deadly. Although she still faces years of reconstructive and cosmetic surgery, as well as therapy to teach her body to compensate for the loss of some muscles, she is now free of the infection.

``She is doing very well now,'' said Mary Cirricione, administrative director of women's and children's services at the center.

State health officials are still investigating whether Ventura doctors misdiagnosed Rosa's symptoms when her parents first took her to the Ventura County Medical Center late last month. She was sent home but had to be examined again three days later when her condition worsened.