Mike Seiler, ND

· West Central Tribune ·
Retiring Kandiyohi city clerk recovers from West Nile virus
Anne Polta West Central Tribune
Published Saturday, February 04, 2006
KANDIYOHI — More than 100 friends and neighbors gathered around Mike Seiler last weekend to help him celebrate his retirement as the longtime clerk for the city of Kandiyohi.

For Seiler, it was a double milestone: Not only has he wrapped up a long tenure as one of the town’s key employees, he’s also making a recovery after being severely stricken last summer with West Nile virus.

“It’s great to be home,” he said. “You realize the goodness of people in small communities. There’s a lot of good heart in these people.”

Seiler, 65, has been a fixture in Kandiyohi, population 555, for more than three decades. As the town’s city clerk — only the second person since 1939 to hold the position — he kept the minutes at City Council meetings, wrote out all the electric bills and helped ensure the city ran smoothly.

Craig Aurand, the mayor of Kandiyohi, has known Seiler for more than 20 years.
Seiler does physical therapy at his home in Kandiyohi. (Tribune photo by Bill Zimmer)
Seiler
“Mike was exemplary. I can’t say that enough,” Aurand said. “The books were balanced to a T. He could tell you where every penny was at any given time. He took care of the city like it was his child.”

Like the city clerk before him, Seiler ran the office almost literally from his kitchen table, Aurand said. “People were very accustomed to calling him at home.”

After the death of his wife, Cheryl, in 2002, Seiler decided it was time to turn over the city clerk position to someone else. He announced his intentions to the City Council at the beginning of 2005, giving the council a year to find his replacement.

At the end of July, five months before his last day on the job, he began having severe headaches. His neck hurt. His temperature rose to 105.

He doesn’t remember the ambulance trip to Rice Memorial Hospital in Willmar, nor the trip to Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, where he was to remain for the next several weeks.

“I was out of it. I was extremely, extremely sick,” he said.

At first, the doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Finally, after more than a week, they found the answer: Seiler had West Nile virus. His was the eighth case of the mosquito-borne disease to be confirmed in Minnesota last summer.

Most people recover from West Nile virus with little more than flu-like symptoms. Two percent, however, end up becoming severely ill when the virus attacks their brain and nervous system.

Seiler’s brain had swelled. His limbs were paralyzed. He was unable to swallow. He had hallucinations and unrelenting pain.

“You never would have thought that one little mosquito could take you down so far,” he said.

He thinks he survived because he was determined to live — and because he had so much support from his family, friends, neighbors and medical team.

“Thank God for family and friends,” he said. “I didn’t realize how sick I was most of the time. Several times I wasn’t supposed to make it. You need the desire to live and the people around you to encourage you.”

His daughter, Robin Winterfeldt, a registered nurse, was at his side almost every day. Sons Mark and Jay visited nearly as often.

Word about Seiler’s condition spread quickly through Kandiyohi.

His years of public service had made him well known and liked, said Sue Kidrowski, the city clerk for Pennock who stepped in to replace him.

“It was just like a parent or grandpa getting sick,” she said.

Many friends and neighbors made the 100-mile trip to see him in the hospital.

Aurand visited several times. It was clear the situation was grave, he said. “There were times when I didn’t know if I would see him again.”

It also became clear how much Seiler contributed to the operation of Kandiyohi, Aurand said.

“A lot of people know Mike and know him well but aren’t aware of what it really takes to run a small town,” he said. “There were six weeks there when I missed Mike terribly. I realized even more what it takes.”

Medically, Seiler was in uncharted territory. West Nile virus, which is native to Africa, spread to North America less than a decade ago. There’s little data on the best medical treatment for those who become seriously ill from the virus. Even less is known about how survivors fare in the long term.

As Seiler recovered, he faced a long, slow rehabilitation. The damaged nerves in his arm and legs are expected to eventually grow back, but in the meantime he’s had to learn how to walk again.

It wasn’t until January that he was finally able to go home to Kandiyohi.

“It’s great to be home,” he said. “Through it all I was determined to get better. That was key. It would have been real easy to be discouraged.”

Recovery from West Nile virus can take a year or longer. Seiler still has physical therapy two days a week to help strengthen his legs and his left arm.

He’s optimistic he’ll be well enough by summer to garden and fish. He also hopes to return to his full-time job with Swift and Company in Willmar.

“I’m a firm believer that when your number is up, it’s up,” he said. “I got a second chance. You find a way to do something you didn’t think you could do. I’m going to get better yet.”