A father from Connecticut passed away on Monday. It’s been five years since I was bitten by an infected mosquito while clearing bushes in my wooded backyard.
Richard Pawski, 49, died from complications from eastern equine encephalitis (EEE). Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), a deadly disease that killed New York state for the first time in nearly a decade, has made an alarming resurgence last month, baffling health officials.
The mosquito-borne disease is a rare but “serious” disease that targets the brain and causes rapid deterioration and lifelong disability unless death occurs first.
“We’re not kidding when we say life can change in the blink of an eye, because that’s what happened to us,” his grieving daughter Amelia Pawlski, 18, told the Post.
Richard passed away at 2.30am on Monday, a week after being admitted to hospice, but doctors tragically decided there was “not much else” they could do for him, Amelia said. spoke.
He eventually died from a staph infection called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. This staphylococcal infection has proven extremely difficult to treat when combined with other EEE-derived illnesses, such as bacterial infections of the heart, liver deterioration, and traumatic brain injury.
Richard suddenly fell ill in August 2019 after working in his family’s leafy Colchester back garden. Just one day after discovering the new mosquito bite, Richard complained of a severe headache and began vomiting yellow bile.
Richard underwent emergency surgery to reduce swelling on his brain, but complications from the surgery appeared to worsen the situation, leaving the Polish immigrant in a coma for two months.
Doctors were initially stunned as to what could have caused such a sudden deterioration. A cancer survivor and diabetic, Richard was so health conscious that he refused to drink or smoke.
It wasn’t until other EEE cases started appearing in the state that doctors realized Richard might also be a victim of the virus. There were a total of four cases in Connecticut that year, and at the time Richard was hailed as the only survivor, although he narrowly survived the initial outbreak.
The young father had originally been given a fatal prognosis, and Amelia and her mother Margaret had to make the difficult choice of keeping him alive on life support or pulling the plug. Doctors warned that the brain damage was so severe that he would never be the same again.
They transferred him to hospice care, and had just settled on the heartbreaking latter option, which they believed Richard would have preferred, when he suddenly woke up from his coma and started talking.
However, the miracle did not last long. Richard has spent the past five years in and out of hospitals and nursing homes, suffering from a traumatic brain injury, liver and kidney complications, seizures and other severe illnesses, and periodic bouts of pneumonia.
His mental state was severely affected and one day Richard did not even know what year it was or where he was. Fortunately, he was conscious and alert a few days before his death and was able to tell his wife and daughter that he loved them.
“It’s very difficult. We don’t have much family here,” a tearful Margaret told the Post, adding that the stress was putting a huge strain on their cross-border relationship.
“If he didn’t understand, none of this would have occurred to him,” Amelia added about Triple E.
“He always tried to look on the positive side. I remember people being like, ‘How was your day?’ And he said, “Today is a great day.” I woke up. I can breathe on my own. I can speak for myself. I can now go to the toilet by myself. There’s no reason to be upset. ”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 30% of EEE cases are fatal.
It is a rare but serious disease that is spread to humans by infected mosquitoes and has some similarities to other mosquito-borne diseases in the United States, such as dengue fever and West Nile virus.
“This infection is considered the most severe of these,” Dr. Roy Gulick, director of infectious diseases at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, told the Post.
At least 10 EEE cases have been confirmed across the United States this year, including a death in New York and another in New Hampshire, a bone-chilling increase from previous years. It shows.
The unidentified patient in Ulster County is the state’s first confirmed human EEE case since 2015 and was diagnosed on September 20 by the Department of Health’s Wadsworth Center.
The virus is particularly prevalent in the Empire State. State officials announced this week that infected mosquitoes have been found in at least 15 counties, including Suffolk County, compared to only two or three counties in previous years.
The cause of the sudden increase is also a mystery.
“It’s usually sporadic, but it’s not clear why. Some years there are more of them than others,” Gulick said, adding that the health department monitors mosquito pools and infected horses. However, these are also the insect’s main targets, he added.
“The presence of this virus is more serious this year than in previous years, as mosquito pools have tested positive and horses have also tested positive. Cases appear to be scattered across New York, but people You need to be really careful about this and do everything you can to avoid getting bitten by mosquitoes.”
Gulick said there is one silver lining amid the surge in the disease. The impending winter will wipe out the mosquitoes, and the threat will end until next spring.
“Typically, the peak of infection is in August and September, after which it takes several days of subzero temperatures to completely kill mosquitoes. That’s why even though fall has just started and temperatures are dropping, people are still at risk of mosquito bites.”
Meanwhile, infectious disease experts urged New Yorkers to be careful when going outdoors or to areas where mosquitoes may be present.
There is no vaccine to prevent Triple E, so wearing long sleeves and pants and using mosquito repellent thoroughly are essential, Gulick said.
Avoiding being outdoors at dusk is also an easy way to limit your chances of encountering mosquitoes. The same goes for removing standing water from buckets and birdbaths to eliminate mosquito breeding sites.
“This is not to scare people, but people need to take this seriously and do everything they can to avoid mosquito bites,” Gulick said.
