The rare and deadly disease kills 1 in 3 people who are infected.
Kristen Jordan ShamusShe was in a coma, and doctors told the family of the 26-year-old mother of two that she might not live. If she did survive, they warned, she'd probably never walk again.
Savanah Dehart is pictured. She was diagnosed with Eastern equine encephalitis, a rare mosquito-borne virus.The virus, commonly known as EEE, has been confirmed in an additional person in Berrien County, state health officials said, but the total number of cases in Michigan remains fluid as continued lab testing is underway on four more people.
She was exhausted, she said, and didn't feel hungry. Nausea and vomiting hounded her. Her symptoms led her to the emergency room at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo twice, where each time, she was treated and released. "She met us in the ER, and I remember I told her that I thought I was dying," Kaylee Hardenbook recalled.This photo of Kaylee Hardenbrook of Paw Paw was taken in 2014, when she was hospitalized with Eastern equine encephalitis.She was in a coma for five days. She had encephalitis, which caused swelling in her brain, as well as meningitis, which involved inflammation of the tissue around her brain and spinal cord.
It's hard to pinpoint exactly what's driving the EEE infections in Michigan this year, said Richard Van Enk, director of infection prevention and epidemiology at Bronson."Typically, it has to do with the mosquito population," he said."It could be that we have a lot of mosquitoes this year. "The term equine implies that the major source is horses, and they are not," Van Enk said."Horses are dead-end hosts like we are. It is a disease between birds and mosquitoes."
In this 2014 photo, Kaylee Hardenbrook was hospitalized and in a coma as her body fought Eastern equine encephalitis.At first, she said,"I would, like, wake up from time to time, I would ask about the boys, ask about Chris, who is my husband, things like that, but I didn't really come to until, like, the second week. Then I could be awake for a couple hours.
Kaylee Hardenbrook holds her sons, Fritz and Sylas, at the hospital, where she was being treated for Eastern equine encephalitis."My nerves were refiring in my spinal cord, so I felt like I was getting electrocuted," she said."That went on for like two or three months after. I had to learn to re-walk and how to use the bathroom. That was weird."
Hardenbrook said she took her first steps Oct. 10 – one month to the day after she was likely bitten by an infected mosquito at the concert. Five years after her ordeal, Hardenbrook said she's always thinking about how to keep her boys from getting bitten by mosquitoes."Mosquitoes are so hard to avoid, but I think people just need to be more mindful of it, you know, and always wear bug spray," she said.
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