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Encephalitis Cases
Joey
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In February of 2003, while a soldier with the 101st Airborne Division of
the United States Army, Joey was aboard a ship (guarding patriot missiles)
on its way to Kuwait when he became ill. Medical personnel told him he was
seasick and scared, advised him to drink lots of water, and "buck up and
be a good soldier", he did. After arriving in Kuwait 6 days later, it was
discovered his appendix had ruptured, perforating his colon in the process,
and he was diagnosed with peritonitis and a small bowel obstruction. He
underwent emergency surgery in Kuwait City Hospital where they removed the
appendix, resected his colon and drained 3 abscesses. He was then sent to
Landstuhl Regional Army Hospital in Germany for what we were told would
be 3 - 4 days of stabilization before he was to return to the United States.
But, instead of getting better, he developed 2 more abscesses, bilateral
pneumothorax and sepsis. At the end of March 2003, he was finally flown
home with an 8" incision on his abdomen that was still open (Medical records
stated they had been unable to close the incision due to the amount of infection
he had.) A physician's parting comment to Joey was, "Boy, you scared us
a couple of times".
Joey was allowed to come home for 10 days while on medical leave before he returned to his base at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. We thought he was finally on the road to recovery when in May 2003 we received a phone call from his captain, informing us that Joey had been found unconscious and seizing in his barracks. They had been unable to stop the seizures at the base hospital and had life-lined Joey to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. We were given a phone number and asked to call that hospital immediately. Upon making that call, we were told our son had arrived there still seizing. We were also told they had been able to stop the seizures, but that he was in a coma and on life support. Stunned and somewhat in a state of shock, I asked if they were telling me that he was not breathing on his own, their answer was simply, "Yes. How quickly can you get here?"
During the eight hour drive to Tennessee, we received several calls from the hospital. Each time our cell phone rang, we pulled the car over, fearing this would be the call that told us we were too late. Instead, each call was a request to perform yet another test. Before we arrived Joey had been diagnosed with encephalitis and started on multiple antibiotics as they were unsure what type of encephalitis he had. Though he was tested for "every virus known to mankind", had serial MRIs, some CT scans and lots of EEGs over his 28 day stay in that hospital, the myriad of tests were never able to determine the cause. Their final diagnosis would be encephalitis of unknown origin, though they believed it to be directly related to a severely immuno-compromised immune system resulting from his recent infections.
After an extended time in a coma, Joey awoke! As I sat in the waiting room, thanking God for letting my son survive, I had no idea what we were in for. While Joey seemed to recognize us (his parents and his grandmother) his speech was almost incomprehensible. He began seizing again; on one particular day he seized 38 times in 12 hours. He was unable to feed himself, unable to walk and after a short period of time, we realized he was having great difficulty with his memory. He in fact did not remember a large portion of his life. He was at that time 25 years old, had been overseas with the Army, and was a graduate from a high school for gifted students and from Purdue University with a degree in aeronautical technology. Yet, his memories stopped at his sophomore year in high school. What we thought was the end of a long road turned out to be only the beginning of a much longer journey.
Joey spent most of the following year in hospitals and rehab facilities. Despite
best efforts at recovery, he was awarded 100% disability upon being discharged
from the Army in 2005 and came back to northern Indiana to live. His speech
had cleared up rather quickly, though to this day he has great word finding
difficulties. He now walks with an altered gait, but without any assistance.
His long term memory has not returned so those missing years of his life
remain a mystery to him. He is also unable to form new memories. He utilizes
many of the same items Alzheimer patients do in an effort to deal with his
memory problems. He is very much like the role portrayed by Drew Barrymore
in the movie 50 First Dates. Instead of starting over each day though, he
starts over every few days and of course he is unable to drive due to his
seizures. He currently takes 25 pills a day to control his seizures and
1 pill for depression. He also has an implanted device called a VNS. It
works much like a pacemaker but is for the brain and helps in seizure control.
The restrictions on his independence are what bother Joey the most. Pike, Joey's canine assistant, has given him a bit of his independence back. He alerts to upcoming seizures, summons help when a seizure occurs and remains with Joey during seizures, offering a degree of protection from those who might not understand what is happening or might take advantage of him. Joey does have his own home (next door to us), full of devices that monitor his movements and help keep him safe. He cannot be left alone for any significant length of time so we have developed an extended support group of people who help us care for him. They bring some socialization into his life and often make remarks about how inspirational he is to them.
It has now been 6 years since his initial diagnosis. We've put off posting his story on Daniel's site until we all agreed no further dramatic recovery would likely be occurring. Of course, we believe in God and his ability to perform miracles so perhaps one day we will be blessed with one. In the meantime, we'll cope....knowing that this is God's plan for our lives.
Vicky Indiana, U.S.A.  Posted: June 28, 2009 |
 The 101st Airborne Division — the "Screaming Eagles" — is a U.S. Army modular infantry division. It is the only U.S. Army division with two aviation brigades. It is one of the most decorated divisions in the U.S. Army. |
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