Laura Booker, TX

West Nile survivor taking steps to be safe
By Guiseppe Barranco -The News staff writer Posted: 08/07/05 - 08:49:09 pm CDT

Three years have passed since Laura Booker was told by doctors she had eight hours to live from contracting the West Nile virus, but a strong will and a well-informed doctor saved her life.

In late June of 2002 Booker hosted an employee barbecue in her back yard where a mosquito carrying the West Nile virus bit her, passing the disease into her blood stream.

One week later unusual symptoms began appearing, Booker said.

"It was a week of odd things like aching, nausea and a rash. So I called a doctor," Booker added.

Booker said she was recommended to seek further attention at the hospital, but in a time of little knowledge of West Nile, Booker was sent home for a lack of showing any symptoms of a serious illness.

"As soon as I got home (from the hospital) the paralysis set in and I could barley keep my head up, so I went back in and was immediately quarantined," She said.

Booker was immediately placed in isolation for two days where she lay unconscious with a 104 degree fever.

After waking from her unconscious state, Booker was told by doctors that she had contracted West Nile and to expect only eight hours to live.

"I was not going to die there. There was no way I was going to die there, so I went home," Booker said.

Booker then checked out of the hospital and went back to her home in Nederland where friends came by to try and convince her to go back to the hospital.

After a little persuasion, Booker checked into Mid-Jefferson Hospital and was recommended to a doctor who had previously studied the virus.

The doctor immediately began Booker on a five-day transfusion of a plasma product mixed with her own spinal fluid that began reversing the West Nile effects.

Booker then spent six weeks in the hospital where her body slowly began recuperating from the damaging effects of the virus.

The West Nile virus had stripped the outer-coating off the nerves in Booker's body creating a severe loss of motor functions.

"I could not use my facial muscles. My face looked like it just fell to the side," Booker said.

After returning home Booker dedicated herself to further rehabilitation of the use of her muscles.

"I could only carry two wash cloths or one big towel, but I did anything to exercise and get my strength back," Booker said.

Severe nerve damage from the virus had doctors convinced Booker's career as a district manager for Avon had ended, but Booker proved otherwise.

"With the damage I had, they thought I would never be able to work again, but I was back in six months," Booker said.

Today, Booker continues to see the specialist once a month for the same treatment that saved her life three years ago and stores DEET-based mosquito-repellent products by each door at her home.

"The experience makes you value life a lot more. All the things you think are important, you find are really not," Booker said.

Contact this reporter at gbarranco@panews.com.