Sudbury EEE Patient Sophia Garabedian Leaves Hospital

SUDBURY, MA — Sophia Garabedian left a Boston hospital on Friday almost one month to the day she was diagnosed with deadly Eastern equine encephalitis. The 5-year-old survived a virus that has a 50 to 75 percent mortality rate, but she still has months of rehabilitation to go before she fully recovers, according to her family.

Garabedian was admitted to Boston Children's Hospital on Sept. 3 with symptoms of EEE — fever, headache, seizures — and the virus was confirmed three days later. But by Sept. 13, Garabedian was improving, and she was transferred to the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Charlestown.

EEE has sickened 12 Massachusetts residents so far this season, killing three. Although the mosquitoes who carry EEE will die as colder temperatures roll into the state, risk levels for contracting the virus remain "critical" in most of Massachusetts, including much of the Metrowest region — and Garabedian's hometown of Sudbury.

The girl's parents declined media interviews on Friday, but did release a statement calling their daughter's recovery an "ongoing" story with months left to go.

Here's the family's full statement:

Over the past month we have experienced one of the most difficult challenges of our lives. However, at the same time we have also felt the incredible love and support for Sophia and our family as we have gone through it. Today we are so happy and thankful to share that through the timely and world class care at Boston Children’s Hospital and then Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital we have reached a major milestone that we had hoped for; to bring Sophia home.

Sophia has been so courageous through this entire ordeal and made enormous progress from those terrifying first hours and days to waking up, breathing on her own, first words and steps and now at a point where she can go home. While this is an important milestone we are thrilled to celebrate, she still has a long road ahead of care on an outpatient basis to keep improving her mobility and continue to work to recover her cognitive functions such as long-term memory. We have no doubt she will continue to amaze us.

There are no words that can adequately describe the depth of our family’s gratitude to those who have donated to support Sophia or shared their prayers and heartfelt thoughts through cards and messages. Every positive thought has helped us to get to this day and will get us through as we continue to work on her recovery.

At this time, we just look forward to bringing Sophia home and beginning to return to as normal lives as possible. Her story and recovery is still ongoing and our focus is there and will continue be so. Respectfully, we do ask for space and privacy while we settle back to our lives over the next few months.

Sophia’s spirit and love have always brought joy to our family. Through the support of the community, skill of her caregivers and strength of her spirit we still have our precious daughter and a bright future to look forward to together.