'I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy'

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- When avid University of Pittsburgh football fan John Spratt skipped the Pitt game Oct. 11, Joseph Spratt knew his younger brother was sick. Neither of them realized how sick.
Barely a month later -- Nov. 14 -- John Spratt was dead at age 46 of liver failure, the third and latest fatality in the biggest known outbreak of hepatitis A in U.S. history.
More than 575 people have fallen ill over the past few weeks after going to a now-closed Chi-Chi's Mexican restaurant, and investigators say scallions may have been the source of the virus.
Spratt, who worked at a payroll processing company, fell ill after having chicken fajitas with his 17-year-old daughter Oct. 5 at the restaurant in the Beaver Valley Mall, about 25 miles from Pittsburgh. His daughter did not get sick, apparently because she did not eat all the condiments that came with the fajitas.
"A Pitt-Notre Dame game, he wouldn't give that up unless he was pretty sick," said his brother. By Pitt's Oct. 25 game, Spratt was feeling fine and thought he had gotten over the flu or whatever it was, his brother said.
Went into hospital
But Nov. 3, the very day the state Health Department announced the outbreak, Spratt was hospitalized with severe dehydration and abdominal pains.
He expected to be out in a few days. But the next night, he went into liver failure. Spratt, a devout Christian family man, spent his last 10 days heavily medicated, never able to say goodbye to his wife, Robin, and daughters, Jacqueline, 17, and Kristen, 12.
"We were told he could hear us, and if you talked to him there'd be a little flutter of the eyebrow or a soft squeeze of the hand, but that's about it," Joseph Spratt said.
The three deaths have shocked western Pennsylvanians, because health authorities have been saying that hepatitis A is usually not fatal and normally runs its course in a few weeks after causing such symptoms as fever, jaundice, nausea and abdominal pain.
State Health Department spokesman Richard McGarvey said there does not appear to be anything surprising statistically about this outbreak. The fatality rate for hepatitis A is one to three deaths per 1,000 cases, though it rises to 18 per 1,000 for those over 50, and higher for those with chronic liver problems, McGarvey said.
Other deaths
Dineen Wieczorek, a 51-year-old diabetic, died at a hospital Nov. 12 while awaiting a liver transplant because of damage done by the virus. A customer service representative at an Ikea store, she had eaten at Chi-Chi's on Oct. 6 for her 32nd wedding anniversary.
Jeff Cook, 38, a laid-off auto-body restorer, died Nov. 7 of liver failure, shortly after receiving a transplant because of the virus. The coroner is investigating whether acetaminophen Cook took for his symptoms contributed to his death, because overuse of the pain reliever can cause liver damage.
Other victims are slowly trying to get over the symptoms.
Jennifer Parison, a 32-year-old homemaker, has been ill since Oct. 30 and blames the lobster enchilada meal she had at Chi-Chi's weeks earlier for her hepatitis. Seven months pregnant, Parison has been told her unborn child is in no danger. But that has not made her life any easier.
"All you want to do is sleep. It's like you're disoriented all the time," Parison said. "And with four kids screaming and a husband working 12- to 14-hour days, it's like it's never going to end."
She said the TV accounts of the outbreak scare her and make her cry.
"You go out to eat and you think you're safe and you end up sick. This is ridiculous," she said. "I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy."
Kim and Jim Hite took the virus with them on vacation. They ate taco salads at Chi-Chi's on Oct. 4 and Jim Hite became ill about two weeks later, while the couple were celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary in Florida.
"By the time we left Florida, he was throwing up and had a horrible flight home," said Kim Hite, a 31-year-old kitchen manager at another restaurant. She became ill shortly afterward, as did two others in their dinner group.
"Actually, we thought we had the flu and were treating it like the flu, but once you get into it, it's 10 times more horrible than the flu," she said. "You totally lose your appetite. You actually eat because you have to eat to live. You don't eat because you're hungry."
She said she has lost 25 to 30 pounds and her husband has lost 40 to 50.
For the next week or two, they figure they will pass the time with three or four naps a day, daytime television, puzzles and board games.
"This is not us. We're always on the go," she said. "This really settled us down."