West Nile Virus: One Decatur Man's Story

The West Nile virus has already been detected in mosquitoes during routine collections in DeKalb County.

It’s important to take precautions, such as wearing bug repellant, to keep mosquitoes from spreading the virus to you.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the majority of people who become infected won’t become ill. However, about one in 150 will develop severe illness, even paralysis.

Unfortunately, that’s what happened to Decatur resident, Devin Lenz.

“Thinking back it’s fuzzy,” the 40-year-old husband and father of two said about last August 23.

Lenz was sitting at an outdoor café when his back started to hurt. Things spiraled fast from there. That night he woke up and couldn’t move his legs. His wife, six months pregnant at the time, called 9-1-1. He was rushed to and later transferred to Emory.

While doctors ran multiple tests and waited for results, Lenz suffered respiratory failure and was hooked up to a respirator. It wasn’t until a week after his first symptoms started, that doctors discovered Lenz was infected with West Nile Virus.

There’s no way of knowing exactly when or where Lenz was bitten. The development of symptoms starts between three and 14 days after infection.

The diagnosis was somewhat surprising, since Lenz was in good health and the virus typically is severe in the elderly, the young and others with weaker immune systems.

“We all know that life is full of surprises and unexpected things should be expected in a weird way,” Lenz said with a positive attitude now.

After recovering from the virus and learning he would be a paraplegic, Lenz was depressed. However, six weeks into his stay at the Shepherd Center, he started to look at life differently.

“I’m super fortunate that I have a great spouse, a huge support system and two great kids.” While Lenz lost the motor function of his lower body, he still has his sensory skills of which he says he is grateful.

“I get irritated bumping into things in my wheelchair, but the hardest thing to deal with emotionally is as a dad, there are a lot of 'dad things' I am not able to do.”

Next month a year will have gone by since Lenz contracted West Nile Virus, changing his whole world.

“I’ve learned to be open to change. Change is difficult but if we embrace it we can do anything. We can make do with anything thrown at us.”