The West Nile Support Group in Dallas is once again offering help to patients and their families.
Medical City Dallas Hospital hosted the group’s first meeting of 2012 on Monday night.
“I’m really just trying to pay it forward," said Sean Lemoine, one of the many survivors working with the support group to help new victims and their families. "My goal is to try to educate people about the dangers of West Nile."
“For family members who might have a loved one in the hospital ... give them an idea that they can get better, get it back together and it's going to be a long, hard struggle, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel," Lemoine, who remains partially paralyzed three years after contracting West Nile virus.
The West Nile Support Group actually started years ago and helped Lemoine as he recovered from a coma.
“Dr. Don Read and his wife, who sponsored it, both came and sat at my hospital bed to tell me it would get better and members of the West Nile Support Group came by," Lemoine said. "[They] just randomly would show up in my hospital and just sit and talk to me for a while and tell me what they went through and what I could expect and it would get better eventually."
As the number of new human cases went down over the years, the group stopped meeting until now.
The West Nile Support Group plans to continue meeting at Medical City Dallas Hospital. For more information about future meetings, contact hospital representative Chris Hawes at 972-566-6422 or chris.hawes@hcahealthcare.com.
