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'It's tragic and terrible - Hantavirus survivor reacts to outbreak · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: My next guest contracted hantavirus when he was just a teenager.
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  Speaker 1: He survived. Jordan Herbs joins me. Now, Jordan, thank you
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  Speaker 1: so much for your time tonight. I think your story
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  Speaker 1: is really important to a lot of people who are
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  Speaker 1: listening and are probably pretty worried. So thank you for
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  Speaker 1: your time.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 1: So you are a teenager, can you talk to me?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know if you know how you
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  Speaker 1: contracted it, but what was it like when you started
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  Speaker 1: to become ill?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So I was fourteen years old and the part
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  Speaker 3: of the world that I grew up in a little
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  Speaker 3: town called Bishop in California, kind of tucked away up
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  Speaker 3: in the mountains that county. Ineo County is one of
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  Speaker 3: the places in the state, and I think in the
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  Speaker 3: country that you're much more likely to come in contact
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  Speaker 3: with haunt a virus.
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  Speaker 2: It's still very.
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  Speaker 3: Uncommon and very unlikely that you will come in contact
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  Speaker 3: with it. But where we were living at the time,
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  Speaker 3: up in a little neighborhood called Aspendell, has quite a
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  Speaker 3: lot of deer mice or a big deer population up there,
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  Speaker 3: and the house we were living in I was kind
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  Speaker 3: of staying in this apartment in the garage kind of
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  Speaker 3: on the sub level of the house, so it was
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  Speaker 3: an area that wasn't very well ventilated, and you know,
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  Speaker 3: especially in the garage or in that apartment back there,
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  Speaker 3: there could have been potential deer mouse activity, and I
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  Speaker 3: think that's the most likely place that I would have
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  Speaker 3: been exposed to the virus.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so then you know, just describe some of
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  Speaker 1: the symptoms or what happened exactly in terms of you
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  Speaker 1: obviously became eventually quite sick and had to be hospitalized.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So it's my understanding that the virus can incubate from
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  Speaker 3: anywhere from like two to six weeks, so you present
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  Speaker 3: no symptoms during that time, and then once I did
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  Speaker 3: kind of start to show some symptoms, it was really
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  Speaker 3: just like flu symptoms.
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  Speaker 2: I have, you know, aches and pains and chills.
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  Speaker 3: And then fever started and I had a pretty high fee,
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  Speaker 3: I think for about two days. But what kind of
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  Speaker 3: started setting the alarm bells off was one night while
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  Speaker 3: I was sleeping, my mom was in the room with me,
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  Speaker 3: and she noticed that I was having trouble getting oxygen
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  Speaker 3: and you know, really short labored, shallow breath.
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  Speaker 2: So she thought it would be good.
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  Speaker 3: To call the rural Health clinic in town and see
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  Speaker 3: what their advice would be. And one of the nurses
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  Speaker 3: there actually was a haunted virus survivor herself, and because
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  Speaker 3: of kind of like seeing flu symptoms in the middle
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  Speaker 3: of the summer, which you you know, wouldn't see, she
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  Speaker 3: was suspicious that it could be something, you know, a
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  Speaker 3: little bit more serious than just a flu.
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  Speaker 2: So they suggested that coming.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, how how scary for you and your mom, and
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  Speaker 1: how lucky for you that you had that they had
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  Speaker 1: the medical you know, history and knowledge to say this
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  Speaker 1: might be antivirus, because what we're hearing is that quite
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  Speaker 1: often those who are trying to who are confronted with
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  Speaker 1: it initially don't suspec that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's unfortunately happens commonly where people who are exposed
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  Speaker 3: and are are showing symptoms come in and then they're
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  Speaker 3: discharged or sent home because it's kind of thought to
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  Speaker 3: be just a flu or something less serious. So like
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  Speaker 3: there is I know another young man a couple of
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  Speaker 3: years ago who was exposed up in body near Mammoth
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  Speaker 3: Lakes and he was discharged and luckily, you know, his
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  Speaker 3: his family thought to persist and make sure that he,
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  Speaker 3: you know, came back in and was receiving care. But
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  Speaker 3: it is definitely something that can happen.
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  Speaker 1: Jordan, you're speaking about this, you know, very matter of factly.
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  Speaker 1: It's obviously been years now, you're no longer fourteen. But
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  Speaker 1: how fresh is the memory of that feeling of illness
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  Speaker 1: and what it was doing to your body? And I'm
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  Speaker 1: asking this because people who are listening are worried about
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  Speaker 1: those who have come in contact. What might happen to them.
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  Speaker 1: What's your advice to them about what could maybe doesn't
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  Speaker 1: but could lay ahead.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So, even though I was over ten years ago now,
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  Speaker 3: I still have pretty vivid memories of those first couple
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  Speaker 3: of days of being sick. And then I remember the
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  Speaker 3: first lifelight I was on from Bishop up to Reno
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  Speaker 3: to the children's hospital there, and I remember being awake
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  Speaker 3: while my lungs were starting to fail, and that being
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  Speaker 3: kind of a really scary feeling, of course, trying to
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  Speaker 3: get oxygen in and not being able to do so.
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  Speaker 3: But from there I was intubated, so I think I
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  Speaker 3: was lucky enough to be unconscious for most of the
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  Speaker 3: most harrowing moments of the whole ordeal.
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  Speaker 2: I really feel for my.
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  Speaker 3: Family having to live through something so traumatic and really,
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  Speaker 3: you know, see me in such drastic condition.
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  Speaker 1: So, yeah, what's it like for you and your family
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  Speaker 1: seeing hantavirus in the headlines right now?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, obviously it's it's concerning.
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  Speaker 3: It's not something I would wish anybody to go through ever,
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  Speaker 3: or be exposed to at any point. And my understanding
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  Speaker 3: is that there's there's like age strains something like that,
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  Speaker 3: and there's only one that can be transmitted from person
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  Speaker 3: to person contact. So all in all, I mean, my
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  Speaker 3: message to people would be that it's something that you're
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  Speaker 3: very unlikely to ever come in contact with or be exposed.
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  Speaker 2: And I think if you're if you're good about.
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  Speaker 3: Taking precautions, and if you you know, have had any
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  Speaker 3: sort of exposure with someone from the cruise ship or
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  Speaker 3: any of these flights or the places where people are
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  Speaker 3: getting exposed, you know, I think it's from what I
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  Speaker 3: understand it, it takes quite significant, like prolonged exposure to
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  Speaker 3: actually transmit the virus. So I would tell people to
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  Speaker 3: you know, not worry too much if if they're not
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  Speaker 3: being directly affect acted by it. It's not not like
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  Speaker 3: a new pandemic or anything. It's it's been around and
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  Speaker 3: been documented and you know, we we have information on the.
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  Speaker 1: Virus and okay, Jordan herbs hand a virus survivor, thank
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  Speaker 1: you so much for making time for us tonight.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, yeah, no problem. Thank you for having me