[meteorite-list] Moving Clyde Tombaugh's House Nearly Became Fatal

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:21:09 2004
Message-ID: <200307270414.VAA04291_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=70159

Moving experience nearly fatal
By NATHANIEL LUEDEKER
Daily Sun (Arizona)
July 26, 2003

Steve Schoner contracted acute diseminating encephalitis that almost killed
him after moving Clyde Tombaugh's house. Schoner believes he was bite by a
spider or tick, or he could have be exposed to mold while working on the
astronomer who discovered Pluto's old house.

Moving Clyde Tombaugh's house became more than just a moving experience
for Steve Schoner.

It almost cost him his life.

Schoner inherited Tombaugh's old house and moved it last fall from Aspen
Avenue in Flagstaff to a vacant lot on Bonito Street next to his house, the
better to restore it to a bed and breakfast and a museum.

Tombaugh is the late Lowell Observatory astronomer credited with discovering
Pluto. Schoner, 52, is an amateur historian and director of a meteorite
association.

But after the move, Schoner's health troubles started. While working on the
old house, he may have suffered a spider or tick bite, or possibly inhaled
some toxic mold.

Shortly after Christmas, he noticed a bump on his head. Although no side
effects from the bump occurred right away, Schoner said he gradually started
to suffer from fatigue and depression but thought it was probably due to
the amount of time he had spent working on the Tombaugh house.

"I figured, 'Well, as soon as the holidays are over I will take a long
rest,' " he said.

Schoner, his doctors later learned, had contracted acute disseminating
encephalitis, causing a rapid swelling of the brain that plunged him
into a week-long coma.

Afterward, he could not walk, talk or move the right side of his body for
weeks.

Watching Schoner earlier this week navigate around his Civil War cannon to
his meteorite collection and then to his microscope in his home on Bonito,
it is hard to believe that just months ago he was comatose. He has a
fading 5-inch scar and dent on the top of his head from a brain biopsy but
otherwise appears normal.

COULDN'T SOLVE PROBLEMS

On Saturday, Jan. 6, Schoner felt dizzy with a headache and decided to
rest on the couch.

By Sunday, Schoner said he could not figure out how to solve problems.

Schoner said that he wanted to turn off a plant light that was annoying him
but to his "amazement" could not figure out how to turn it off. Also, he
said that he could not remember how to change the water in his bird cage
and ended up boggling his wife, Diane, by pouring the water on the floor.

"I said to myself, 'What is wrong with my brain?' I knew something was
wrong big time but by this time there was no pain at all," he said.

On Monday, Schoner said his wife came home and found him on the floor
unable to move, vomiting a clear fluid, and muttering incomprehensible
phrases.

Diane took Schoner to Flagstaff Medical Center, where an MRI showed that
the left side of his brain was swelling and shutting down the right
portion of his brain. Schoner said that after the MRI, he lapsed into a
coma for seven days.

In the coma, Schoner had many visions, most of which he remembers clearly.

Schoner said he saw a light so bright that he wanted to look away. Jesus
appeared in the light, he said.

"I was looking at him, I was looking at his face and he spoke to me. He
said, 'I am sending you back,' and I said, 'Where?'"

Schoner said that suddenly he was back in the hospital and had another
vision of his brain being worked on.

While Schoner was in the coma, doctors took a biopsy of his brain and also
conducted a spinal tap.

Schoner said that after he came out of the coma he could not speak or move
the right side of his body. However, after two days, Schoner said he was
able to move his thumb and toe by concentrating on it.

"That (moving the thumb) was a demonstration to show that I was not going
to be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life," he said.

Schoner said he improved by "leaps and bounds" and shocked the doctors, who
told him they had never before seen anyone recover speedily from acute
disseminating encephalitis.

EXPOSED TO TOXINS

Neurosurgeon Dr. Nathan Avery, one of Schoner's doctors, said that
encephalitis is a generic term for any brain inflammation. A number of
things can cause it, including exposure to toxins.

With acute disseminating encephalitis the swelling happens much more
quickly, he said.

Another doctor who cared for Schoner, Dr. Steven Hoover, said the condition
is very rare and the causes are not entirely known. It usually occurs
preceding a viral infection, he said.

Schoner, although nearly physically normal in appearance, may permanently
suffer from diminished mental abilities. He said his problem-solving
abilities have been affected and he can no longer drive a car or work at
his previous occupation as a computer technician.

In addition, Schoner gets fatigued easily and has a limited short-term memory.

On a table in the living room, Schoner keeps a black notebook that he
occasionally refers to for his daily schedule. Each day, Schoner lists
his daily events under a heading of "morning," "afternoon," and "evening."

The house that caused Schoner his problems sits with antique chandeliers in
some rooms and dirt-covered floors and lumber in others. It is half-finished.

Schoner said that he had had plans to rent it out as a sort of bed and
breakfast, but now he is not sure what he will do with it because he cannot
work on it and the costs and health bills have far exceeded his resources.

"I would never move another house in my life," Schoner said
Received on Sun 27 Jul 2003 12:14:44 AM PDT