From KVUE
April 25, 2018
In 2016, Cody Hopkins was bit by a mosquito and rushed to Dell Children’s Hospital. Doctors did not initially test Hopkins for the West Nile virus until his father — a veterinary tech — pointed out his son matched all the symptoms and asked for his son to be tested.
Hopkins had West Nile encephalitis, and the virus passed the blood brain barrier. He died within nine days.
Devastated and outraged, Hopkins parents began their own quest for a vaccine. What Hopkins’ parents found out was eye-opening: a vaccine that could have potentially saved their son’s life might already exist.