Boy still dealing with West Nile consequences

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Brice Scouten, 13, is still coping with the side effects from the West Nile virus. He got sick nine years ago when he was four years old.

"Brice was very happy, very bubbly, a very excitable child. He loved to roller blade and ride bikes," Becky Smith, Brice's mom, said. "The child we brought home [from the hospital] was a shell of that. He was listless. He just didn't smile for a long time."

Brice was on a family camping trip over the Fourth of July weekend in 2003. It rained for four days, and Smith said they didn't think about putting on bug spray.

"He had a few mosquito bites when we got home. Not a lot, but a few," Smith said.

Smith said Brice started getting sick a few days later. It seemed like the flu, with headaches and muscle aches. But, Brice was getting worse.

They went to an emergency room, and the doctor said Brice just had a bad headache and in the next 24 hours he would be fine.

"That's not what happened," Smith said.

That night, Brice's fever got up to 105 degrees and he wasn't able to walk or talk. The next day, Smith took her son to a pediatrician. That doctor immediately made them go back to a hospital.

Brice was admitted and fought for his life for five days. Test results finally showed Brice had West Nile.

"We didn't know much about it, so it was a learning process for us," Smith said.

The recovery at home wasn't fast. Brice started therapy to relearn everything. Now 13, Brice still has short and long-term memory issues, migraines and weakness on his left side.

It's difficult for Smith to revisit Brice's illness, but she wants other parents to listen to her story.

"Don't say this can't happen to me because it can happen and when it does it will turn your life upside down," she said.

Smith doesn't shelter Brice or his younger brother, but they always take precautions.

"Bug spray all the time. Even as the weather gets cooler, we still use it because mosquitoes are still there," Smith said.

In addition to using repellent,Smith said to get rid of standing water around homes and yards where mosquitos like to breed. She also always has her kids wear long pants and sleeves when going out in the evening.

So far this year, Indiana's had 16 cases of West Nile and two people have died. Two cases have been confirmed in Allen County and four other possible cases are under investigation.