My father is 63. His name is Marvin F. He has been ill since April 2000. We live in
Killeen Texas. The type of encephalitis is unknown at this time. My name is Tammy. He had
shoulder replacement in April at the VA hospital in S.Antone TX. The next week he could not
walk without stumbling. He had tremors in his hands when awake & in his legs & feet when
asleep. 3 spinals, MRI, EEG, EKG, EMG, blood tests were all negative. he is now on a feeding
tube. He can hear but not speak.
Marvin is currently only on penicillin. Does not recognize us at times. He has been in the
hospital for a month. Cannot turn his head. At the moment he seems to be at a standstill
with the illness. Has a constant fever of 100.3. The hospital cannot find a reason at
this point to keep him in much longer. We are trying to get him transferred to a research
facility for more testing. He was an avid fisherman, nonsmoker/nondrinker. We were told he
had CJD, Parkingsons & possibly a stroke. All were ruled out through testing. Blood test
for tetanus, lyme, metals, toxins but nothing shows up. We don't know if this is going to
progress or if it has gone this far & stopped. Doctors from 2 hospitals are working on what
may have caused this. Marvin has been in isolation for 3 weeks,since they did not know if
it was contagious.
Marvin served 3 tours in Vietnam, at times being soaked with agent orange.
He had surgery while there for wounds in his leg. He received 2 units of blood after
the surgery when he first started getting weak. The blood has been traced to an area army
hospital. We are hoping to see if the blood was donated from soldiers who may have served
in the Gulf War or been overseas recently.
He has 12 brothers & sisters and no one else in
the family history has had this problem which rules out hereditary. The hospital has had
him in a private room so that my mother can stay with him. Everyday she is getting more
discouraged that nothing can be found. We are a very close family, having friends over
every weekend at our parents house for a fish fry which my dad enjoyed cooking for everyone.
He stayed on the lake during the week so that the weekly cookouts could continue.
Now nothing means anything to us. Marvin was always giving and never asked why you wanted
something. He retired from the post office 2 years ago. While delivering mail one day,
he saw a child drowning in a swimming pool at an apartment complex and after pulling the
child out, went on delivering the mail in his wet clothes. We cant understand why this
would happen to someone with such a good heart. We hope everyday that he will be able
to come home and recover. His doctor has been so good, letting us suggest things that
we find on the internet & then testing for it. If there is anyone else in the Texas area
that knows of someone with these symptoms please email me.
