We met last week with Sean Lemoine, an East Dallas lawyer who contracted West Nile virus last year. Holding his fingers over the hole in his throat where a tracheotomy tube used to be, he told the story about how the illness almost killed him and changed his perspective on life. Lemoine is in a wheelchair now, but he does physical therapy five days a week for six hours. And he is confident that with the help of Baylor hospital’s rehab center, he’ll walk again. While moneymaking and his work as a business law trial attorney topped his list of priorities before the illness, his No. 1 goal now is to see his two kids, Rachel, 2, and Jack, 4, grow up.
“I had a real glimpse of my mortality,” Lemoine says. “Money’s not that important to me. I mean, it’s easy to say that because I have a little bit of money, but you can’t take it with you. No one was asking for my credit card when I was in a coma. No amount of money is going to help me learn to walk again.”
He’s a pretty neat guy, and I can’t wait to see what he does once his lungs are strong enough to get back to work.
DMN metro reporter Sherry Jacobson got her story about Lemoine out first, and she does a fine job telling it. Take a look.
