"We don't know how lucky we are"

http://www.billingsgazette.com/printer.php?id=1&display=rednews/2003/12/05/stories/local/20-westnilesurvivor
Ballantine man making progress against West Nile

Michael Victoria Jr., 46, was hospitalized with West Nile virus in September and is partially paralyzed. He can move his hands but not his arms very well, and he has some strength in his legs but cannot stand. Before getting the virus, he worked at his own auto-body paint shop and tended bar in the family restaurant.

He lived in Ballantine with his wife, Stacey, and has four children. He now lives at the Aspen Meadows Retirement Community in Billings where his mother, Nellie, said Thursday he is making some progress. "We feel like he's turned a corner," she said.

Victoria can hold his arm aloft for several minutes and his nausea is gone so he is eating better. "We'll take whatever we can get," Nellie Victoria said. "We don't know how lucky we are, and he can't even scratch his nose," she said.

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