Carl “Lefty” Long, Victim-NY

Family says Ossian man died from West Nile Virus
By ROB MONTANA - STAFF WRITER

An Ossian man passed away at Highland Hospital in Rochester Tuesday from what his family believes to be complications of West Nile Virus.

Carl “Lefty” Long, 69, first became ill in August, his wife, Rose, said this morning. She said he had come into their home one night complaining of a headache. After checking his blood pressure and finding it elevated, Rose said she consulted with Carl's doctor and gave him an extra blood pressure pill. The next morning he was a completely different person.

“He was totally confused, and doing things that were not normal,” Rose Long said. “I had to physically dress him and took him to his doctor's office in Canaseraga.”

Once there, Long said the doctor told her they were sending Carl to Noyes Memorial Hospital in Dansville by ambulance. After a couple days at Noyes he was transferred to Highland Hospital in Rochester.

“He just deteriorated so quickly,” Long said. “He thought he was working, in his mind.

When he was transferred to Highland, he underwent two spinal taps and stomach surgery. Long said the tap showed West Nile Virus.

“It's a scary thing,” she said. “His body, I can't explain it, it just lost all its strength.

“It happened so fast,” Long added. “We tried everything to save him, but we couldn't.”

After looking into the case this morning, Joan Ellison, Livingston County Health Department director, said her office has received no confirmation of West Nile Virus from lab results it has received.

“We are looking into this matter, and we did have contact with the family,” Ellison said. “The lab results we have received have been negative for West Nile Virus.”

Ellison said there are certain tests done to determine West Nile presence through a lab in Albany. She said her office is still checking to see if all the results are in, and for anything that would indicate a test done more recently.

Long spoke with someone at the county health department at the time her husband was stricken.

“I was angry because they never told anybody about it being in the area, they don't think it's here,” she said. “They asked me if he had traveled out of the country, and I told them no, just locally.”

Carl Long's doctor, Dr. Thomas Dwyer, was out of his office this morning, but his office manager said they could not release any information as a result of HIPAA regulations that protect privacy of patients. The physician that cared for Carl at Highland Hospital also was unavailable for comment this morning.

Long spoke with Dwyer's office this morning, and they said they would not release the information until she fills out some legal documents. She said they did tell her they looked at the file and had some information from Highland that said Carl passed away from encephalitis as a result of West Nile Virus.