They gave me 15 spinal taps, and I screamed each time. But the doctors and I didn't know they were crushed at the time. The crushed vertebrae were a result of a horse accident. All my head. I don't know whether it was from my high fever or antibiotics they had given me.

After my release, my parents took me back home to Arkansas. I am 5'7" and when I was released from the hospital I weighed 87 lbs. As a result of lying on the ice blanket for that amount of time caused me to catch pneumonia and I had to have lung surgery. The bottom lobe of my left lung had collapsed.

About a year later, I was back to riding race horses again. I did have a stuttering speech problem for about four or five years afterwards. And to this day, I am extremely sensitive to bright lights and sharp noises. My concentration is not very good, and I do tend to have headaches a lot. I am now 50 years old and am doing fine. I have no major health problems from the encephalitis. I was told that I had a 40/60% chance of recovery. Well, I guess, God wasn't finished with me, because I'm still here and now have two wonderful children and a beautiful wife.

I tried to sue the county hospital for negligence, but I found out you can't sue a county hospital. I could have died in the asylum with no family around and no one to know the wiser.