Joplin Tornado Volunteer Has Bizarre Illness

Source

It seems one of the volunteers who helped with the clean up after the tornado in Joplin, Missouri has been stricken with a mysterious illness.

For days, Mike and his friend moved cars out of the way. One day, while still there, he woke up with strange symptoms.

“He didn’t know where he was, he was confused, nose bleeding, and he had blisters on his legs,” Dina explained.

Mike went to the hospital, but left a little later, seeing tornado victims waiting who needed more help.

More than one year later, he’s still in constant agonizing pain.

The volunteer, Mike Forest, is still unable to find a doctor who can diagnose his illness. I know there were volunteers and victims at the time that contracted some sort of deadly fungus, but I don't believe this is it.

The family is sharing the story in hopes someone out there knows what is going on. So ATS, anyone have any ideas?

whoa.....that avatar, man
my first suspect is parasites that were pre-exixsting and are merely coupled with the other fungus symptoms/////
how many x"s in existing?

Wormwood for parasites, it's cheap on ebay!

reply to post by GBP/JPY


I kind of wondered the same about it being something he had before going to Joplin and it just happened to spring up during that time. Until he finds out WHAT it is, it will be hard to find out when it happened.

I do remember there was time a lot of people were getting sick and the place got like quarantined off. I wonder if that has something to do with it. I remember families trying to go to the morgue but they weren't allowed to see to see their loved ones and the military had it like sectioned off. Maybe it's the symptoms they have. Forgot where that article is. I'm sure someone on here will be able to find it for you.

www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com...

www.nytimes.com...

reply to post by tport17


Wow, I know a Mike Forrest that lives in Joplin, and lost his home to the tornado, but it isn't the same Mike Forest as the guy in the OP. Weird.

Anyhow, there were about 14 cases of this weird illness after the tornadoes, and it was originally blamed on a soil fungus. There were also an insane amount of spider-bite victims during the cleanup.

I hope this guy gets better, his help was definitely appreciated. My family in Joplin breaks down into tears every time they think about the huge outpouring of support and help. It was extremely moving and appreciated.

reply to post by Manhater


I'm pretty sure you're talking about the deadly fungus people were getting out there. Here is a link for more info on that. It was a disease called mucormycosis. Here are the symptoms.

Mucormycosis most commonly affects the sinuses or lungs. Symptoms of sinus infections include fever, headache, and sinus pain. Lung infections with the fungus can cause fever and cough.

Skin infections can develop after the fungus enters through a break in the skin caused by surgery, burns, or trauma. A skin infection can look like blisters or ulcers, and the infected tissue may turn black. Other symptoms of a skin infection include fever and tenderness, pain, heat, excessive redness, or swelling around a wound.

Blisters match, but he never mentioned it turning black or anything. I would think if he went to the hospital right after he got sick they would have noticed if it was similar to the others that had it.

reply to post by getreadyalready


I'm sorry for your friends! It was a terrible event.

Spider bites are an interesting idea. Anyone know of spider bites that show symptoms like this?

reply to post by tport17


I don't know...
Spider bite symptoms for that long?

reply to post by resoe26


Yeah, trying to research the spider bites a little and it isn't looking like it. Not seeing anything about spider bite symptoms lasting for more than a few hours unless it is very poisonous, such as a brown recluse. If it was that kind of spider he would have had different symptoms. But I am by no means a spider expert. There could be something out there that would fit.

reply to post by tport17


I don't think something like that could be directly caused by a spider bite, but often times something like a spider bite can trigger an allergic reaction, or an auto-immune reaction. I'm leaning toward the auto-immune reaction. Perhaps his body is overreacting to a fungus, bacteria, or venom, and although the original cause is long gone, the reaction is on-going.

This is Mike Forest wife. Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. His primary job while in Joplin was pulling cars out from the hospital parking garage. Anyone that was not "working" to clean up were all in HazMat suites. A week afterwards he woke up with a blood soaked pillow, blisters on his legs, terrible head aches, and flu like feelings. Freezing cold sweats. He lost days of his memory. The paid has never gone away, but since it has been so hot here this year it seems to have brought back on most of the symtoms. Watch Fox 4 Kansas City news to hear him explain the feeling of a spoon scrapping his bones. Please help us spread the word on CNN and Fox 4 Kansas City so we can find a doctor to come take him and figure this out. We are 30 days from handing over our house and car, because he is in so much pain and cannot take it anymore. He is giving up on me and I won't allow it. Thank you all for caring! Dina Forest

Originally posted by Joplinpain
This is Mike Forest wife. Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. His primary job while in Joplin was pulling cars out from the hospital parking garage. Anyone that was not "working" to clean up were all in HazMat suites. A week afterwards he woke up with a blood soaked pillow, blisters on his legs, terrible head aches, and flu like feelings. Freezing cold sweats. He lost days of his memory. The paid has never gone away, but since it has been so hot here this year it seems to have brought back on most of the symtoms. Watch Fox 4 Kansas City news to hear him explain the feeling of a spoon scrapping his bones. Please help us spread the word on CNN and Fox 4 Kansas City so we can find a doctor to come take him and figure this out. We are 30 days from handing over our house and car, because he is in so much pain and cannot take it anymore. He is giving up on me and I won't allow it. Thank you all for caring! Dina Forest

Im so sorry to hear this. for him AND you. I had a similar situation when my husband returned from the Gulf and his illness was denied and misdiagnosed and then swept under the rug. Its not only hard on the person suffering from the myster ( or so called mystery) illnesses, but the ones who love them feel destroyed as well. Please know I.. and Im sure many.. can identify with your desperate search for answers. What you CAN do right now is treat the symptoms and search for the origin at the same time. Get him to a neurologist.. the pain "like a spoon scraping" is similar to the feeling described by some who are suffering from nerve pain or neuropathy. Take him to a derm.. let the derm scrape the lesions and send them to the lab for cultures. They WILL do this if asked because I had to do this just last year myself.

Doctor shop.. not for drugs, but for proper and competent care. Many Drs these days of not most are not into diagnosing anythig, they just treat the easiest things with pharma promoted remedies and brush off anything that requires work or cooperation with specialists. Push them.. Ive hollered at more than one Dr and walked out with my husband. It took several yrs and he was finally sort of diagnosed.. but more importantly treated Hang in there!!!

reply to post by Joplinpain


Get your husband to try large amounts of offbeat foodstuffs, since he still requires food, after all. Try to note any cause and effect in relief due to diet. I suggest large doses, as a means of trying to jog something loose. Fungus does not sound out of the question, and it needs to be starved. Look it up on the net.

I would tinker with turmeric, garlic, ginger, ginseng, lots of teas and liquids. If it's suspected fungus, avoid sugar.

Personally, I would be curious what affect colloidal silver misting would have on the symptoms, independently of any dietary changes. Since you are needed to be homeopathic hand maiden, try to abide by whatever he needs, not necessarily wants. Try to put a little moto in physical workouts, and then, Quality Rest, to be sure, Doctors balk at oddball disease vectors, and I'd be careful what you ask for because they are great at forging die cast, permanent labels.

ETA: Baking soda's another thing you can play around with, for treating everything from spider bites, to shingles. It provides alkalinity, like the colloidal silver, which many pathogens do not like. You can look up the medical uses for baking soda.

For mrsa type things, there's the Manuka honey. You can eat it and use it as a salve.

Waking up to a bloody pillow is fairly harsh...I wouldn't waste time on idle chit chat, but I maintain that diet can be effective for ailments, in a general sense. It's been a year? I assume the bloody discharge has abated??? Normally medics take that rather seriously.

reply to post by Joplinpain


Was your husband perhaps exposed to mold? There are special air purifiers said to have an effect on mold. Have you heard of freshaire fans? (I think that's the name of the company). They use a special blue light and a fan and an ion generator, and a moderate filter mainly to protect the machine, I suspect. I mention this because the symptom of respiratory distress (blood) sounds like mold could be involved.

I would suggest a homeopathic doctor,.
unless something the Military or a chemical plant had gotten exposed,.
it is an odd thing.
I would start researching herbal remedies,. Hell, start eating radishes by the bagfull
They cleanse the body internally,. Cordycypt Mushrooms Reishi mushrooms,. all detoxifyers
spirrilina, is also a good detoxifier
research heavy metal detoxification,.
it could be mold, maybe high intake of garlic cloves and onions,. natural penicillin
Hit the net.. Most Doctors are stupid people with degrees

Hi Dina, I know you guys are pretty close to KU Med. Call them or the mailing address is...
University of Kansas Physicians
PO Box 410208
Kansas City, MO 64141-0208

The only phone # I have is for the billing office but they will transfer you... 877-729-5874

I would suggest as in depth a blood panel as possible.
Someone mentioned a blue light fan and ionizer. What you would want would be a UVC light with a negative ion producer. Positive ions will make the symptoms worse. This is fairly important. A doctor who specializes in tropical diseases might have some suggestions. Also, maybe call the CDC for any input their doctors might be able to give. They compile a lot of research....things like Cholera, Dengue fever, Ebola, Yellow fever, I would look into. And then parasites. Even some combinations of things, with an existing Candida infection. And as many have suggested here, broaden the spectrum of health care people you speak with. For the fibromyalgia type of pain, an acupuncturist might be able to help. A holistic approach might help, as well. And also, it might help to get in touch with some Gulf War veterans who had physical problems that they felt were related to some kind of exposure to a nerve gas agent, and find out where they found doctors who would treat them and do necessary testing.
I find it noteworthy that he was working in a hospital area. There are potential chemicals, viruses, gases, no telling what onsite, perhaps stored, or no telling what a storm like that could have picked up elsewhere and dropped.....
Good luck, and know that many will be thinking of you.

I know this is an old and dead thread now, but I like to see resolutions posted if they are available.

The news reported that this man has been found to have West Nile Virus, and possibly something else that is aggravating the West Nile. He is set up to visit the mayo clinic to find out.

Here is the news story: Link

I'm glad they figured out what was wrong and hopefully they can ease his pain and help him deal with this.

Again, sorry to bump an old thread but I wanted to give the thread some completion.