EEE survivor who spent weeks in coma warns of mosquito-borne disease

ASHLAND, Mass. — An Ashland EEE survivor is sharing his story to prevent others from contracting the rare and potentially fatal mosquito-borne disease.

Bob Powderly, 73, went to MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham in August 2019, suffering from a pounding headache and exhaustion.

“I thought I was having a stroke,” Bob told Boston 25 News Thursday. “The headache was one like I’ve never had before. And I felt a little bit of strength just kind of flowing out of my body.”

Bob went home and returned the next day. He was later moved to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where was diagnosed with Eastern Equine Encephalitis, a rare disease that causes brain swelling and has no cure.

Bob slipped into a coma for about three weeks. As he lay in his hospital bed on a ventilator, his wife, Anne, and their children were at his bedside praying for his recovery.

“It was nothing like I’ve ever felt before,” Anne said. “We consider it miraculous that he recovered to the point where he is.”

Bob finally returned home in November. He would spend the next few months continuing his recovery at out-patient rehabs. Today, he is nearly 100-percent recovered.

“I had to learn how to walk, for starters,” Bob said of his rehabilitation. “But during the course of that, I set little goals for myself. At first, I wanted to be able to stand, then I wanted to be able to walk, then I wanted to be able to dribble a ball.”

Bob was one of 12 human cases of EEE last year. Six were fatal.

He believes he contracted the virus at his backyard pool, feet from the woods.

Now, he takes extra precautions, having the yard sprayed for mosquitoes every 10 days, wearing bug spray, long sleeves and pants when outside between dusk and dawn. And he’s urging others to take caution, too.

“You don’t want to be me,” Bob said. “All you can do is prevention. Don’t put yourself in situations where there’s a lot of mosquitoes or water pools where they breed, that type of thing.”

The EEE season is ramping up, with the first human case identified this month in Middleborough. Aerial spraying has begun in several communities after dozens of sample mosquitoes were found carrying the disease.

“Pay attention to your area,” Bob said. “You don’t have to be paranoid, but be careful.”

Cox Media Group