ICYMI: Chelmsford Man Battles West Nile Virus

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Mark Maynard told WBZ that he thinks it was a family backyard barbecue in New Jersey that changed his life.

Maynard, a 41-year-old Chelmsford resident, was diagnosed as Massachusetts’ first 2015 human case of West Nile Virus back in August.

He told WBZ he suspects the family barbecue at his mom’s new place as being where he was bitten by the mosquito that infected him. Since then, he’s been fighting to regain the strength and mobility he had prior to the diagnosis.

His friends and co-workers started a GoFundMe campaign to help cover Maynard’s expenses during his recovery, which, according to WBZ, has been much more extensive than is typical of otherwise healthy West Nile Virus sufferers.

Normally, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, WNV produces no symptoms at all or just simple flu-like symptoms. In Maynard’s case, however, “it triggered a neurological nightmare... that has kept him in hospitals and rehab facilities ever since,” his diagnosis, CBS News reported.

It’s less than 1 percent of those infected, according to the Mass DPH, who suffer the kind of extreme symptoms Maynard has encountered.

Maynard is now in a wheelchair, and doctors have told Maynard it could take two years for him to regain his ability to walk.

So far in 2015, there have been nine human cases of WNV, according to the Mass DPH.