ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — Doctors diagnosed a teen from Hazelwood with rare complications from a common late summer virus. John Procter VI, known to his friends and family as "BB" started feeling sick in early August.
"On August 8th he complained of a headache with a little dizziness," said BB's dad, John Procter.
Aug. 8 was BB's first trip to the emergency department, and he went on the 9th and 10th too.
Then on the 11th, his parents thought BB was having a stroke: "His speech was slurred, he couldn't raise his arms up and he couldn't smile."
The Procters rushed BB to the emergency department again.
"They took him into intensive care immediately and within a few minutes they put him on a ventilator," Procter recalled.
Tests revealed BB had West Nile virus.
Mercy St. Louis Department of Medicine Chair, Dr. Farrin Manion explains what symptoms came be like: "It would be like having a flu with muscle aches, joint pains, abdominal pains, fever headache... the usual very nonspecific symptoms associated with viral infections."
BB's case is more rare.
"A small fraction will actually develop neuro-invasive disease," explained Manion, "which is the attack of the virus on our nervous system, the brain or the spinal cord."
The teen is paralyzed from the neck down and on a ventilator to help him breathe. Procter is hopeful his son will recover.
"It's going to be a marathon of intense therapy and rehab, from speaking to other people who have endured the West Nile Virus and things like this, they tell me it could take one to two years," he said.
Doctors expect BB will need to use a wheelchair, walker, cane, ramps and rails for his recovery.
"If anyone would be interested in helping with him and his recovery, he does have a GoFundMe that we have established," Procter said. "Every penny of that GoFundMe is going to go specifically to his rehab and his therapy to get him back walking and doing everything a normal teenager should be doing."
While BB recovers, St. Louis County teams continue to track West Nile Virus.
"Typically throughout the mosquito season there's really not much West Nile at the beginning of the year, but by about this time of the year we pretty much see it everywhere throughout St. Louis County," explained Vector-Borne Disease Prevention Specialist Tony Patullo.
Patullo said bug spray and limiting time outdoors are the only options for lowering your risk of contracting West Nile Virus and other mosquito-borne diseases.