A western Minnesota woman is speaking out about her life-changing experience with West Nile virus amid a rise in reported cases.
Clarissa Sparkl, 37, of Montevideo, experienced a case so severe that she now stays in an assisted living facility.
“Once you get West Nile, there is nothing you can do about it. It takes a week to diagnose it,” Lori Winterfeld, Sparkl’s mom, said.
That’s how long it took to diagnose Sparkl’s condition. By that time, her health had taken a turn for the worse.
“She got sick on a Friday, and by Monday she was hospitalized and intubated,” Winterfeld said. “The only thing she could move initially were her eyebrows. And then she could eventually blink. It’s been a long, long haul.”
Sparkl added, “I didn’t know what happened because I was young and healthy.”
Her family believes she may have been bitten by a mosquito carrying West Nile in her own backyard. She also takes medication for multiple sclerosis, which Winterfeld thinks may have made it harder to fight off the virus.
“One percent of the cases of West Nile are neuroinvasive, and hers hit her brain stem,” Winterfeld said.
Sparkl became so weak that last year, she was forced to leave her husband, Jesse, and 10-year-old daughter behind, and move into a nursing facility in St. Paul. That’s where Winterfeld takes care of her during the week, and Jesse drives from Montevideo to be with her on the weekends.
Over time, some movement has returned to her arms and her hands.
The goal now is to get Sparkl off her breathing tube, and once that happens, she can go home. Her family is hoping that it can happen by November.
“It’s really hard because I love my daughter,” Sparkl said.
Winterfeld added, “It’s been hard on her, too, not having a mom at home. Video chat is wonderful. She gets to see her mom every day, and she gets to talk to her.”
Even with a homecoming on the horizon, the fight against the virus will continue.
“It’s been a bad year for West Nile. In every state, it was very early,” Winterfeld said.
Before she got sick, Sparkl worked as a social worker, a teacher and a pharmacy technician. A GoFundMe page has been set up in her name to help pay for medical care.
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