Former Giants coach Flannery back home after infection battle

Former Giants thirdbase coach Tim Flannery had seven surgeries over the past three weeks in a San Diegoarea hospital to fight a lifethreatening staph infection, but he improved enough to go home Friday, his antibullying foundation said in a Facebook post.

“Over a month ago, I was rushed suddenly from my home by a platoon of Emergency workers to the hospital,” Flannery said in the statement released by the Love Harder Project. “My body was sick, my blood work said it was worse.”

An Oct. 27 statement from Flannery’s family said he entered the hospital on Oct. 18.

“For the last few weeks I was treated for an elusive staph infection that was decimating me through pain, infection and demoralization that came out of nowhere,” Flannery said. “Today, yesterday, moments ago, all of it seemed like a dream. I got to finally come home.”

Flannery also said that during the ordeal he “hallucinated, wept, fought off doubt, and surrendered to God, and hung on,” adding he remains “a long way to being healed.”

The Love Harder statement said the coming weeks would be “critical.”

Flannery credited his “amazing team of doctors at Scripps Institute,” as well as “home and faith, and frontline science and medicine and love” as the “warrior tools” that helped him recover.

Flannery, 63, was the Giants’ thirdbase coach under manager Bruce Bochy through all three World Series championships. Upon his retirement after the 2014 title he threw himself into his folk band, Tim Flannery and the Lunatic Fringe, which he formed to raise money through concerts and record sales for the Bryan Stow Foundation.

Stow was a Giants fan and paramedic who was beaten nearly to death and was permanently disabled during an attack in the parking lot at Dodger Stadium after the 2011 season opener. His efforts grew into Love Harder project.