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Local valley fever patient improving
| Wednesday, Apr 16 2008 5:40 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Apr 17 2008 7:32 AM
In the roughly two weeks Jacalynn Hernandez has been at UCLA fighting valley fever, her condition has improved, according to her father and physician.
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Jacalynn's weight has dropped to 96 pounds since struggling with valley fever for about a year and a half. She is now being cared for at the Mattell Children's Center at UCLA. Her mother Michelle Melendez quit her job to stay with Jacalynn.
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“She ate her Lucky Charms this morning,” said father Pascual Hernandez on Monday. “She took a bite of corn dog, some tater tots.”
That’s an improvement for the Bakersfield 17-year-old who has been fighting valley fever for almost two years and has gone from 180 pounds to 96 pounds.
She was profiled in The Californian April 5, shortly after being transferred to UCLA’s Mattel Children’s Hospital.
“She was not communicating, at least not to me,” when she first got to the hospital, said Dr. James Cherry, professor of pediatrics in the infectious disease division of the children’s hospital. “She was being fed intravenously and just in major distress.”
Three days ago, Cherry heard her laughing, he said.
And while she still can’t walk on her own, she can now move onto her sides by herself, Mr. Hernandez said.
“All the prayers that have been going out, that has helped,” he said.
Valley fever, which is endemic to Kern County, is caused by breathing in a fungus found in the dust.
In nearly 60 percent of people, valley fever causes no symptoms.
In 40 percent, it causes cold or flu-like symptoms. But in fewer than 1 percent, it can cause ulcers, lesions — even death.
Valley fever — also known as coccidioidomycosis, or cocci — has wreaked havoc on Jacalynn’s spleen, liver, gallbladder, skin, bones and blood.
“She has cocci all over her body,” said Cherry, who has treated valley fever for decades. “I think hers is more extensive throughout the body than any I’ve ever seen.”
Jacalynn’s valley fever has also developed into meningitis, an infection of the tissue surrounding the brain and spinal cord, he said.
A shunt was put in to drain some of the fluid in her spinal cord, which has alleviated a lot of her pain, Hernandez said.
Jacalynn will have to take medicine for the rest of her life, and the shunt will “almost certainly” be permanent, Cherry said.
But she can live a long life, he said.
Cherry recently got a call from a patient he treated for a severe case of valley fever in the 1970s, when treatments weren’t as advanced as they are today.
The man is now 44 years old and seems to be doing well, Cherry said. “There’s hope.”