Chelmsford Man Fighting For His Life After Mosquito Bite

BOSTON (CBS) – From the confines of a wheelchair, Mark Maynard described the partial paralysis that has radically changed his life. “I just didn’t have the strength to move,” says the 41-year-old Chelmsford man. Maynard was a study in good health – but can’t walk now thanks to his wobbly legs, stiff torso, and weak arms. “We’ve all been bitten by mosquitoes during our lives,” he says. “So it is certainly unusual to think that just one time you can get nailed like that. But it can happen.” Maynard thinks it happened during an August 8th family cookout at his Mom’s new place in New Jersey, where hungry mosquitoes feasted on his bare legs. “Simple as that – a backyard barbecue,” says Maynard. “But about a week later I started feeling really achy.” He was sent home after his first visit to the Emergency Room at Lahey Clinic, only to be admitted the very next day when he couldn’t stand. Within days, public health officials confirmed Maynard as the first West Nile victim of the summer in Massachusetts. We normally think of “Triple E” as the scariest mosquito-borne illness. Indeed, West Nile produces little more than flu-like symptoms in the vast majority of healthy folks. But it triggered a neurological nightmare in Maynard that has kept him in hospitals and rehab facilities ever since. A battery of tests haven’t shed much light on why the virus has so tortured his spinal cord – or why relapses seem to spackle the recovery process. Ma...
Source: WBZ-TV - Breaking News, Weather and Sports for Boston, Worcester and New Hampshire - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Health Heard On WBZ NewsRadio 1030 Local Seen On WBZ-TV Syndicated Local Watch Listen Ken MacLeod Kim Tunnicliffe Mark Maynard West Nile Virus Source Type: news