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Battle back from brink of death
Landscaper recovering from severe encephalitis caused by mosquito bite
By CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY, Staff writer
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First published: Saturday, August 9, 2008
Steve Taite's bad luck started with a little mosquito.
The critter bit Taite, a Duanesburg landscaper, and infected him with a rare virus. What followed would have killed most people.
Friends and family are holding a fundraiser Saturday to help pay $50,000 in medical bills the Taite family accumulated over the past two months even though Steve Taite was insured.
He doesn't even remember the bite. Taite, 37, a muscular 5-foot 6-inch man with a buzz cut and brown eyes, runs D&S Landscaping with his wife, Diane, 34. He's not the type of guy to sit still.
He stayed home sick one Tuesday in May with flu symptoms, but he was back on his ride-on mower the rest of the week despite feeling ill. By Sunday, he couldn't put a sentence together. Diane rushed him to St. Clare's Hospital in Schenectady.
Within hours, the emergency room doctor diagnosed Taite with severe encephalitis. His brain was swelling. He began hallucinating.
Tests on his blood and spinal fluid eventually revealed the infection was likely caused by a mosquito carrying the Jamestown Canyon virus, a member of the family of viruses known as California encephalitis. The virus is carried by the same mosquitoes that transmit the West Nile virus.
Only seven cases of California encephalitis have been documented in New York since 2000 and none of the victims have died, according to the state Department of Health. Bites from mosquitoes infected by the California virus or West Nile virus usually cause mild flu-like symptoms or no symptoms at all, but some people develop severe infections.
Last week, Chad Byrne, 26, a Fort Edward man who served with the National Guard in Iraq, died from encephalitis. The cause has not been determined, but family members say the doctors suspect a mosquito bite.
"He fought in a war, was injured twice and he comes home and dies from a mosquito bite," said Byrne's mother, Gail Byrne. "It doesn't seem right."
Taite was transferred to Ellis Hospital. Diane Taite refused to let doctors put her husband into a medically induced coma. The couple had dated since high school in Colonie and were married in 2000. Diane Taite couldn't stand the look in her husband's eyes when they put him in restraints, so she stayed by his bedside and talked him through the hallucinations.
At home, relatives took care of the couple's 5-year-old daughter, Mya. Neighbors fed their chickens and walked their dogs, and a friend stepped in and ran the landscaping business on top of his full-time job.
As Steve Taite fought off imaginary attackers, he jumped out of bed and lifted Diane and the chair she sat in. He bit her father.
Then the seizures started. Four grand mal seizures wracked his body.
"It dropped me to my knees," said Diane Taite, who watched helplessly. "I was in the middle of the hall in the fetal position."
But Steven Taite recovered and was transferred to Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital. He recalls coming out of the haze of hallucinations. It felt like he was on a boat. He couldn't tie his shoes. He slurred and struggled to find the right words. What is yellow and black and buzzes? He didn't know. What is yellow with a red eraser on top? A bee, he'd say.
The doctors told Diane it was as if someone had broken into his brain and knocked over all the file cabinets. Brain damage is common with severe encephalitis.
His problems weren't over.
Taite developed Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a skin reaction to the seizure medication. His skin swelled, turned purple and began sloughing off like a burn victim's. Severe cases often cause blindness or death. He was transferred to the burn unit at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester.
While there, he had a reaction to steroids, Diane Taite said. His organs failed and he was put on a ventilator and life support.
Diane Taite searched the Internet for people who suffered California encephalitis and Stevens-Johnson syndrome. She found references to victims, all dead.
Steve Taite survived. He was taken off life support and breathed on his own. Still, it wasn't over. He developed a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection, a drug-resistant infection from the central line catheter in his chest.
He was sent home with antibiotics on July 14. The skin rash came back and he began to swell, gaining 5 pounds in two hours. He had another seizure and was taken to Albany Medical Center Hospital.
After a week, Taite came home for good on Aug. 1. His prognosis is good. His words are coming back. He remembers how to tie his shoes. New York law prohibits people from driving for six months after a seizure. Still, he climbed on his Toro mower, over his wife's protests, and mowed their lawn.
"Honestly, watching him on the mower that day was one of the scariest and happiest moments of my life all intertwined," Diane Taite said. "His lines were so straight." F. Crowley can be reached at 454-5348, or by e-mail at ccrowley@timesunion.com.
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