Published July 20 in the Courier Journal

Condition of EMT who contracted meningitis worsens

By MATT BATCHELDOR and DICK KAUKAS
The Courier Journal

The condition of an emergency medical technician diagnosed with bacterial meningitis -- an infectious, sometimes fatal disease -- worsened to ''grave'' yesterday.

The man, 27, who has not been named, was at University of Louisville Hospital.

He showed no signs of brainstem activity, said Maj. Beverly Boner of Jefferson County Emergency Medical Services, where the man works.

The man is on a respirator and cannot breathe without it, she said.

''There's absolutely nothing that can be done now to make things to get better,'' she said. The man will remain on the respirator overnight, with hopes that his condition improves, she said.

The EMT's partner, paramedic Matt Creed, described him as ''just a big, quiet guy,'' a ''very nice guy who would do anything for you.''

Creed said the man has been his partner for three weeks, but he has known him for the better part of four years because they were partners at Yellow Ambulance.

''You get closer to (your partner) than your spouse,'' Creed said. ''You get to know every bit of their life, and they get to know every little bit of yours.''

The two ride in the department's District I, east of Taylorsville Road all the way to the Ohio River, he said.

Creed said he first noticed his partner was ill Monday, but it just looked like the symptoms of a cold. His partner didn't come in Tuesday, and when his roommate discovered him very ill, he was rushed to the hospital.

Now scores of paramedics from all around the county have come to support each other, Creed said.

Because the disease can be spread through close contact, health workers checked all the runs that the technician made in the seven days before his hospitalization late Tuesday, said Dave Langdon, a spokesman for the Jefferson County Health Department.

There were 14 runs and in only three of them was the technician close enough to the patients to make officials worry that he might have infected them, Langdon said.

The rest of the time, he was either driving or too far from the patients to pose a risk, Langdon added.

Langdon said three patients were given oral antibiotics as a precaution.

Bacterial meningitis, which causes inflammation of the membranes around the brain and spinal cord, has an incubation period of three or four days, Langdon said.

Because all of the people who had any risk of contracting the disease from the technician have been treated, Langdon said, ''there is no public health threat here. We are reasonably certain we've done everything to stop the spread.''

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