Michael Pekar:  

Mikeys' Story I've been married and divorced twice. First time for 8 years, second for 2. First wife left me because she said we had "grown" apart. We had been together since just after high school, married about seven years later and divorced eight years after that. I met my second wife and we lived together for several years, finally marrying in 1993. We had fun together and as I was recovering from an illness, she decided she wanted a change and abandoned me. (The worst part, she was my partner in EMS, so not just my wife abandoned me, but my partner too, and YOU NEVER ABANDON YOUR PARTNER! I hold no ill will towards her, just grave disappointment in her actions) So that you have an understanding of my status now, I'll give you a description of the illness I had. In January of 1995, I was on business in Costa Rica. (My job at the time, Director of Facilities for Warnaco, required extensive international travel.) During my stay, I was apparently exposed to and became infected with cryptococcal meningitis, a very rare form of the only type of fungal meningitis. It is an opportunistic infection, which typically only attacks people with immune compromised systems, or some other underlying disease. About ten days later, I was in the Dominican Republic on business and as I did from time to time when I was going to a good place, I arranged my travel to take my wife with me. In the D.R. I always stayed at the Casa Di Campo a five star resort (actually the only place in town near the plant! Stay there or sleep under a palm tree), what I considered a ¿good¿ trip. (I¿ve been in some real hellholes too!) I had a few days of on-site meetings at a plant I was expanding, so my wife, an EMT-P/RN, took a few days off and went with me. This way she could have a few days on the beach while I worked, and we would spend the weekend together. Then she flies home and off I go to the next country. But things turned out differently¿¿¿¿. The afternoon we arrived, I had a headache and a cough. Having a dinner meeting that night, I took a couple Advil and laid down for a while. We went to the dinner meeting, and after dinner, I excused myself and went back to the room with a ROARING headache! So, I took more Advil and went to bed. I went to bed a very well enunciated, eloquent, physically well- coordinated person. I awoke a BABBLING IDIOT! My wife saw indications of closed head trauma (Brain swelling) and high fever. She enlisted the help of plant personnel to get us on a flight back home. Once we got back to my home, I was seen at a walk-in clinic, diagnosed with the flu, and sent home with a codeine cough med. I spent the next three days in bed with my mentation steadily decreasing. At that point, she withheld the cough med, thinking the codeine was causing it, but it was not. She had a friend from EMS come over and literally dress and carry me out of the house to her Dr¿s office. He looked at me in the waiting room, and it was off to the hospital. I was seen in St. Vincent¿s ER, and diagnosed with cryptococcal meningitis. Well, being in EMS for many years, I had many friends in the medical community. One of the Captains in Stfd EMS knew Dr. Vincent Quagliarello, the Head of the Infectious Disease unit at Yale New Haven Hospital. He also knew Yale had the only tropical disease unit on the east coast. So, despite protests, I was signed out AMA and taken to Yale. (A whole story unto itself as to how that was accomplished! An EMS COVERT Operation!) Yale confirmed the diagnosis and began treatment with Amphoterracin-B (aka-shake & bake). I was on that for two weeks running outrageous fevers, then switched to fluconizole and discharged with no neurological deficit. I was home about five days on meds and relapsed! This time I went straight back to Yale by ambulance displaying decorticate AND decerebrate responses SIMULTANEOUSLY!! The prognosis is routinely fatal. I spent the next three months in Yale New Haven hospital, ...Expand for more