GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — As 15-year-old Savanah DeHart fights to recover in her hospital bed, her parents fight back tears, wondering if they’re ever going to get their little girl back.
“I want to hug her and have her hug me back or tell her I love her and have her tell me she loves me back,” said Kerri Dooley, Savanah’s mom.
“I just want her to get better,” father Bryan DeHart said. “It’s not fair sometimes. It’s not fair.”
In August, doctors diagnosed Savanah with Eastern Equine Encephalitis. The rare mosquito-borne virus nearly killed her.
She was among 10 people in Michigan who contracted serious cases of EEE last year. Six of them, all from southwest Michigan, died, a mortality rate much higher than EEE’s average of 33%.
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