Thursday, 4:30 PM
Mosquitos make family's life hell
By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff
Every day since the beginning of November, Bradley Clark has driven his small pickup truck 6 miles from his Lakeville residence to the Middleborough nursing home where his wife of 23 years, Sheila, lives. There, he talks to her, combs her hair, and looks for any improvement in her condition.
"To think that a mosquito left her like that, it’s terrible," Clark said.
Before last summer, Sheila Clark, 53, had tackled yard work with a smile, kept a tidy home, and worked as head of sales for a Franklin stainless steel tube company. Then, she was bitten last August by a mosquito carrying Eastern Equine Encephalitis, or EEE, and spent several weeks in a coma.
Last November, she was placed in the nursing home, diagnosed with severe brain damage that has left her virtually unresponsive, except for slight smiles or winks reported by family and friends. Although Clark cannot walk or talk, she can sit in a wheelchair.
"I don’t believe that this is what God intended," said Susan Grimes, one of Sheila’s close friends, who is helping to organize a benefit tomorrow at the LeBaron Hills Country Club in Lakeville to raise funds to help the Clark family. "Someone so beautiful and strong is so limited, I just have to believe that she is going to get better."
Clark hopes the benefit, for which tickets are $35, help offset tens of thousands of dollars in healthcare costs, as well as help finance a project to make the house wheelchair-accessible before his wife is able to return.
"She’s not at that point yet," Clark said. "I would love to have her home, but she gets fed with a breathing tube and needs constant care now. She’s very strong though, and I think she will get better."
