California boy, 13, left in grim condition after coming down with rare disease

Joseph Vasquez, 13, of Long Beach, remains hospitalized at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles after a mosquito bite triggered West Nile virus and led to transverse myelitis. The teen has been bedridden for three weeks, unable to move either leg, and has also lost bladder and bowel control, according to a GoFundMe set up by his family. His symptoms began with a full-body rash, mild headache, leg pain and low-grade fever, then escalated to severe abdominal pain, stiff neck and worsening neurological damage. Doctors initially treated him with steroids before confirming the virus-related cause. The family says the condition is extraordinarily rare and recovery is uncertain, while mounting costs have left his mother, Maria Salazar, unable to work.