Modesto Bee Article

Bee Staff Reports
last updated: October 13, 2009

A 7-year-old Modesto girl with West Nile virus has been in a coma and hospitalized for nearly three weeks, her family said Monday.

The girl was admitted to Memorial Medical Center in Modesto on Sept. 20 and taken to Children's Hospital Oakland the next day by helicopter.

"It's pretty nerve-racking. It's scary," said Autumn Naylor, an Atwater resident and the girl's stepmother, by phone from the Oakland hospital.

The family declined to release the Modesto girl's name but said doctors have told them they assume she will make a full recovery from the mosquito-borne disease once she's out of the coma, but her recovery will be long.

Twelve West Nile cases have been reported in Stanislaus County this year, said Trudi Prevette, a communicable disease nurse with the county's Public Health Department. She said the first case was reported Aug. 3, and the victims' ages have ranged from 7 to 84. None was fatal. Prevette said it's against department policy to speak about individual cases.

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The family is holding a spaghetti-feed fund-raiser Saturday to help with medical expenses at Davis Park, 901 W. Rumble Road, from 1 to 5 p.m. The cost is $5 for adults and $2.50 for children. Also, an account has been set up at Guaranty Bank in Ralph Whittle's name to help with medical expenses. He is the girl's step grandfather.