the essentials A man living in Kensington, New Hampshire (United States), contracted three serious illnesses following the bite of a single mosquito. After spending several weeks in intensive care, he tries to return to normal life.
A single injection was enough to turn the life of 55-year-old Joe Casey upside down. The man from New Hampshire (United States) suffered from the voracious appetite of a mosquito. A mishap from which he tries to recover. Difficultly.
“I fell in my living room and passed out, then my sons and my mother-in-law took me to the hospital,” the 50-year-old recalled to WFSB. After analyzes, the ax falls: the patient is positive foreastern equine encephalitis (lethal disease in a third of casesalso known as EEA), toSt. Louis encephalitis and at West Nile virus. Diseases transmitted by a seemingly innocuous animal: the mosquito.
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The patient spent three weeks in the hospital’s intensive care unit, in a coma. Doctors perform a tracheotomy to allow him to breathe. “You better bring your children here to see him right away,” alerts a nurse so that his wife can prepare for the worst.
Learn to live again
When he wakes up, Joe Casey has to start everything from scratch: walking alone, talking, doing his hair… Even getting out of bed is difficult. Each new step he takes reminds him of the long journey he has come. In his fight, the patient benefited from the support of the medical team. But especially his wife, to whom he has been married for 24 years.
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“Don’t underestimate the size of the bad guy here. You just have to be ready and prepared,” warns the 50-year-old in remission. From now on, Joe Casey no longer leaves his house without taking his mosquito repellent lotion.
