MJC professor is another victim of West Nile

For the past nine months, Modesto Junior College professor Kimberly Kennard has been in and out of hospitals, battling a disease that has devastated her health.

Students at MJC have missed a professor who inspires them to pursue careers in social work and addiction counseling, and who firmly believes in students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The illness, diagnosed as West Nile virus, has been endemic in the region since 2004, and continues to ambush lives, this time an educator who has headed the human services program at MJC.

As the mosquito-borne virus rebounded this past summer in Stanislaus County, it sparked an outcry and brought together people affected by the disease.

Danny Stonebarger, a Turlock real estate broker who was in a coma for 30 days in 2011, paid a recent visit to Kennard, who lies in bed in the living room of her Modesto home. The veteran educator cannot speak or walk.

Stonebarger tries to inspire fellow West Nile patients to work on recovery no matter how depressed or helpless they feel. “I talked to her about my journey,” said Stonebarger, who coaxed smiles and an emotional response from the professor.

The Turlock man and his wife have volunteered to help take Kennard to medical appointments and believe she could improve with rehabilitative care.

For most of last year, Kennard was in poor health with a rash, problems with balance and fatigue, friends and family said. She went to a doctor last December and fell outside the physician’s office, cracking her head.

Kennard, 52, was taken to the emergency room at Memorial Medical Center, spent a couple of days in the hospital and was released. She was back in the hospital in January and was transferred to UC Davis Medical Center, where she was so sick doctors doubted she would live through the night, said her parents, Aubrey and Betty Kennard of Hayward.

A spinal tap and lab results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified the disease as West Nile encephalitis, which causes inflammation of the brain. Kennard, who lost the use of her hands and requires a feeding tube, spent time in a rehab hospital in Modesto and was treated for pneumonia last month at Memorial before she was released to home care.

Last month, human resources at MJC invited staff members to donate sick leave for Kennard, who has a 13-year-old son.

“You can see the students are missing her,” said professor Cheryl Williams-Jackson, who has been teaching her classes. “They don’t know exactly what happened to her. They just know she is very ill.”

Kennard’s office has plaques on the walls, recognizing her community service and support for students.

She earned a doctorate degree at City University of New York and has served on the county mental health board. An MJC professor for 15 years, Kennard developed human services programs for students who aspire to be social workers and has a tireless faith in the potential of her students, colleagues said.

“She expected us to expect more from ourselves,” said Gloria Arroyo, a graduate of Elliott Alternative Education Center in Modesto and a former student of Kennard’s. “She knew what we were capable of. She would encourage us to try harder.”

Arroyo now works as a clinical technician in county juvenile justice. Her mother, a recovering addict, was one of Kennard’s students. She became a drug and alcohol counselor at Stanislaus Recovery Center and has been clean and sober for six years, Arroyo said.

“Kim is fun and very popular with the students,” said Linda Gillispie, a part-time human services instructor. “You couldn’t even get in to her office sometimes, (there were) so many people around her.”

Virus rebounds in Valley

The West Nile caseload declined in California for several years but then resurged in 2014. Stanislaus County had 47 cases that year, including two deaths and 36 people hospitalized with the life-threatening neuroinvasive form of the disease.

If it gets past the human immune system, the virus spread by mosquitoes attacks the nervous system, causing headaches, fever, tremors, severe weakness, coma or death.

The county’s 25 cases this year, which is double the number in 2015, include a 90-year-old man who died and 13 other people hospitalized. About one in five people infected have flu-like symptoms and may not seek medical attention. The most severe cases tend to be reported to county public health services, said Dr. John Walker, county public health officer.

A possible cause for this year’s increase, Walker said, were the El Niño storms last winter, which created more breeding places for mosquitoes. The prolonged warm weather in the Valley pushes the health threat into October, he noted, so residents should continue to take precautions.

Walker said people with underlying health conditions are most at risk, though perfectly healthy people have become seriously ill from the virus.

After suffering abdominal cramps, chills and other alarming symptoms in July, Stacy Beason of Oakdale found out she had West Nile illness and launched a Facebook page called “West Nile Disease California.”

Oakdale was hit with several cases, leaving people to struggle with miserable headaches, hospitalization or paralysis.

Beason’s site called attention to swarms of mosquitoes at the Crane Road dog park last summer, featured Stonebarger’s story and highlighted cases elsewhere in California. Beason said in August she’s amazed some people are unaware of West Nile and hopes her site will change that.

“When people are able to make a connection and see it changed someone’s life, they will take it more seriously and not be so casual about it,” Beason said.

Max Cowan of Oakdale said the retirement years for himself and his wife may no longer be the same. Last week, he said it was Day 15 in the hospital for his 70-year-old wife, Phyllis, who was possibly bitten by a mosquito on a soccer field or the pasture behind their home. Cowan was glad she no longer needed a feeding tube.

“She has to go to physical therapy because her muscular system is shot after being on her back for two weeks,” Cowan said.

Monthlong coma

Stonebarger of Turlock said he had no previous health conditions before he nearly died from West Nile illness in 2011. He came down with flu-like symptoms and began passing out.

“My wife kept trying to get me to the doctor,” he recalled. “One time after passing out, I looked up and there were three of her.”

He finally went to Emanuel Medical Center, where he slipped into a coma, and was transferred toUC San Francisco Medical Center. Stonebarger was diagnosed with West Nile and returned to Emanuel after waking up from the coma.

He credits Emanuel for referring him to a Visalia rehab hospital. There, nurses pushed him to walk while supporting himself on two rails. Therapists taught him to speak in sentences again. Stonebarger said that two other West Nile patients in the facility died.

Stonebarger, now 52, has lingering effects of the illness. He can lose his train of thought, and weakness may force him to cut the workday short. He has nerve pain and muscle cramps that last for 15 to 20 minutes, he said.

Stonebarger is concerned that Valley residents have no defense against the virus, other than dousing themselves with bug spray. “If you have a vaccine for a horse, why don’t you have one for people? We need more research,” he said.

Last year, the National Institutes of Health announced it was funding development of a West Nile vaccine for people most at risk for the neuroinvasive illness. A relatively small clinical trial was expected to be completed next year.

Walker said that, in previous years, health experts thought the costs and logistics of providing a vaccine for people was not justified, because of the low mortality rate of West Nile disease. The death rate is less than 1 percent. The mortality for horses is 40 percent, providing justification for a vaccine administered twice a year.

People who know Kennard, an expert in navigating social services, suspect she might have fallen through the cracks of a health care system that’s challenged by West Nile patients.

Physical and occupational therapists have come to the home to work with Kennard. Her parents said they are arranging appointments with specialists this week and are looking for the best rehab facility for their daughter.

“She has to be recommended for it,” Aubrey Kennard said. “It just takes time, and we need to find the right place for her.”

This story was originally published October 1, 2016 at 4:21 PM with the headline "MJC professor is another victim of West Nile."