Missouri teen who just graduated high school paralyzed and placed on a ventilator from West Nile infection
By Allie Griffin,
2024-08-30
A recent high school graduate in Missouri was left paralyzed and placed on a ventilator in an ICU after contracting West Nile virus.
John Procter VI, known as “BB” to family and friends, has been hospitalized for more than two weeks with severe symptoms that started as a headache and dizziness on Aug. 8, St. Louis 11 reported.
The 18-year-old went to urgent care and was told he had a tension headache and was sent home.
John Procter VI, aka BB, was placed on a ventilator and remains hospitalized after developing severe symptoms from West Nile virus. GOFUNDME
But his symptoms got worse with violent vomiting and a high-grade fever, putting him in and out of the hospital over the next few days.
“They thought he had meningitis, so they did some tests for that. It came back negative. Sent him home and said to give him over-the-counter medicine,” the teen’s father, John Procter V, told the local news station.
The medicine didn’t work, and then things got scary.
“The following day, he had stroke-like symptoms,” the older Procter said. “Unable to move and speech was real slurred.”
They rushed him back to the hospital, where he was admitted to the ICU and placed on a ventilator, he told the station.
After 16 days in the ICU — at the fourth hospital the teen had been to — Procter VI was diagnosed with West Nile virus, which is commonly spread through mosquitoes.
It took dozens of doctors, four hospitals and over two weeks for the teen to be properly diagnosed. Procter family
It took more than 20 doctors scratching their heads over the quick deterioration of the otherwise healthy teen to figure out what was causing the shocking effects.
“He has limited mobility, especially on his left side,” his father said. “He can’t support his weight; he can’t support his own head.”
But the teenager — who hopes to become a diesel mechanic — is making “small but vast” improvements, the dad wrote on a fundraising page set up to help cover medical expenses.
Doctors removed his breathing tube and gave him a tracheotomy to start breathing rehab and physical therapy.
“Doctors say this will be a marathon to try and get him back to what he was before this virus almost killed him,” he wrote.
About 1 in 150 people infected with West Nile develop serious illnesses affecting the central nervous system, like the teen. Procter family
While 8 out of 10 people infected with West Nile virus will develop zero symptoms, there are rare cases where the person can get severely ill like BB, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About 1 in 150 people infected develop serious illnesses affecting the central nervous system such as meningitis or encephalitis. Symptoms include high fever, headache, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, vision loss, numbness and paralysis, according to the CDC.
It can take several weeks or even months to recover from a severe case of the virus.
There have been 289 reported cases of West Nile across 33 states so far this year and 18 deaths.
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