When Lyme Kills
By: Robert Kolker
Tags: Tickpocalypse, Life, Lyme Disease, Health, Ticks

When Lyme Kills

The extremely rare complication you should know about

This story is part of “Tickpocalypse,” a multi-part special report.

Joseph Elone just felt tired at first, like he wasn’t sleeping well. A 17-year-old high-school student from upstate Poughkeepsie, New York, Joseph was a quiet but popular science whiz and electric-guitar lover who had just finished a summer environmental fellowship at Brown University. He’d spent two weeks studying on campus and hiking in the Rhode Island woods and was still riding high from the experience. It was late July, and life had a carefree feeling to it. “He was really happy that he had this chance to really open himself up,” says Joseph’s brother, Emmanuel. “He knew that as soon as senior year started he was going to apply early to Brown.”

Soon, however, Joseph developed cold symptoms — a cough, a sore throat, head and body aches, digestive problems, and a low-grade fever.

Poughkeepsie is located in New York’s Hudson Valley region, an area known for high rates of Lyme disease. Joseph had seen no signs of a tick, a tick bite, or the bull’s-eye rash that is often the telltale marker of Lyme, but he and his parents decided he should see his pediatrician in any case.

The doctor saw little reason for concern. Joseph likely had the flu, he said. He prescribed the standard regimen — rest, fluids, and the like — and suggested they give it time.

But a few days later, Joseph’s symptoms worsened. He was feeling light-headed and said he was sensitive to bright light. He returned to the same doctor, who ordered blood tests for strep throat, Lyme disease, and another tick-borne illness called anaplasmosis. The results were all negative.

Joseph and his family were aware that the antibodies indicating the presence of Lyme disease can take weeks to show up in tests, but even if Joseph were to develop the disease, they weren’t worried. Joseph was young and otherwise healthy, and Lyme is usually curable in a matter of weeks with antibiotics.

“It just seemed like he had a cold or something, or a little fever, but nothing crazy,” Emmanuel says. “It wasn’t something that you would take seriously in the moment.”

August 4, 2013, was a hot and hazy Sunday in Poughkeepsie. Diane’s 49th birthday was the next day, and the family had planned a barbecue that night. Late in the afternoon, Benedict and Emmanuel were getting the backyard ready while Joseph and Diane drove to the drugstore for cough drops. They had just come back, Diane walking toward the house ahead of Joseph, when she heard her son collapse behind her.

Joseph lay on the lawn, a few steps from the family’s front door, unconscious. Diane began screaming. The others came and started screaming, too — calling to Joseph and hugging him, but he didn’t respond.

EMTs rushed Joseph to a local hospital, where doctors spent several hours working to revive him. His breathing was shallow, his heartbeat erratic. Later that evening, he was transported 50 miles south to Westchester Medical Center. Not long after he arrived, in the early hours of August 5, just three weeks since he had started feeling sick, Joseph was pronounced dead.

It would take at least four months and several incorrect diagnoses to determine the cause of Joseph’s death, but ultimately, examinations revealed the presence of Lyme bacteria in several of his organs, including his heart.

The Elone family, devastated by Joseph’s loss, was shocked all over again. They had never heard of anyone dying from Lyme disease.