Missouri teenager left paralyzed and on a ventilator from West Nile virus

A St. Louis County, Missouri, teenager suffered rare complications from West Nile virus that has left him paralyzed and on a ventilator.

John Procter V said his son’s symptoms started earlier this month when the recent high school graduate began experiencing headaches and dizziness.

As the symptoms got worse, 18-year-old John Procter VI, who the family calls “BB,” started having slurred speech and trouble raising his arms up, his father told NBC affiliate KSDK of St. Louis.

The teen was placed in the intensive care unit at the hospital and diagnosed with West Nile virus, which is commonly spread through infected mosquitoes. There is no vaccine or treatment.

The family said the teen is paralyzed from the neck down and was placed on a ventilator to help him breathe.

Severe complications from West Nile are rare. About 1 in 150 people experience symptoms that affect the central nervous system such as inflammation of the brain or meningitis, inflammation of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms of severe illness include neck stiffness, headache, disorientation, and paralysis. Recovery can take weeks or months, and some effects can be permanent.

The Procter family said they hope the teen makes a full recovery. In an update on a GoFundMe page John Procter V created, he said doctors removed the teen’s breathing tube “and gave him a [tracheostomy tube] to start breathing rehab and physical therapy.”

“Our son is very weak at the moment making small but vast improvements,” John Procter V wrote. “His left arm is still very weak, he can’t move his neck or sit up [on] his own. Please continue to keep BB lifted up in prayer, pray for our family and his friends during this traumatic time and keep doctors and medical staff elevated in prayer as well.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former chief medical adviser to the Biden administration, was recently hospitalized with the virus. He told the health news site STAT that he’d “never been as sick in my life.”

“I really felt like I’d been hit by a truck,” Fauci, 83, said, adding, “By far, this is the worst I’ve ever been with an illness.” 

Fauci, who served as the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he initially felt like he was coming down with an upper respiratory infection. But he soon began experiencing “shaking chills,” a high fever and he felt weak. 

He was taken to the hospital on Aug. 16, according to STAT.

Fauci is now recovering at home, but he told the news site that the illness left him so weak that he initially couldn’t stand without help.