News of Triple E Recovery

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September 9, 2006
Triple E patient's recovery 'a miracle'
By CYNTHIA McCORMICK
STAFF WRITER
SANDWICH - The family of a 23-year-old Acushnet man is hailing his miraculous recovery from a near deadly case of eastern equine encephalitis.
Derek Ashworth, a construction worker and semi-pro football player, walked out of the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Cape and Islands yesterday with his parents and girlfriend, Alexis Driscoll, by his side.
''We never gave up hope,'' said his father, Scott, during a hospital press conference. ''We were told there was going to be a miracle.''
Derek is the only one of three Triple E patients in the state to have recovered from the mosquito-borne virus this year.
A 9-year-old Middleboro boy, John Fontaine, died Aug. 31. The first person infected this year in Massachusetts, 52-year-old Sheila Clark of Lakeville, remains hospitalized.
Derek was on the job at a construction site Aug. 11 when he was stricken by seizures. Among the EMTs who arrived at the scene was his mother, Wendy.
Soon he couldn't move his right side or speak coherently, said Dr. David Lowell, medical director of RHCI. His fever topped 105 degrees and he lapsed into a coma.
''It was as bad as it gets,'' said Scott Ashworth, the Rochester fire chief.
After six days in a coma, Derek returned to consciousness at Boston Medical Center. ''The first thing I saw was a bright light, believe it or not,'' Derek said.
It was the light glinting off his father's badge.
By the time he arrived at RHCI on Aug. 25, Derek could stand with the aid of two people.
Now Derek, who had only recently moved to Acushnet from Rochester, describes himself as ''85 percent recovered.'' He still has some problems with the vision in his right eye. But he plans to play football again for the Middleboro Cougars and ease back into his construction job.
''I'm on my way to full recovery,'' he said. ''I'd like to thank the Lord for giving me the strength to continue and succeed.''
Triple E is a rare but dangerous illness that inflames the brain, causing meningitis and encephalitis. There have been only about 250 documented cases in the United States over the past 40 years, and the mortality rate is about 50 percent, Lowell said. Other sources cite mortality rates of 30 to 35 percent.
Only 10 percent of survivors fully recover, Lowell said. ''Derek is one of the fortunate people,'' he said.
Derek's physical fitness and age were positive factors in his recovery.
Triple E is most dangerous to people younger than 15 and older than 50.
Mosquitoes carrying Triple E have been found in Marstons Mills and Dennis this summer, but recent testing of mosquitoes in the Marstons Mills area have shown no evidence of the virus, said Gabrielle Sakolsky of the Cape Cod Mosquito Control Project. (Published: September 9, 2006)