Optimism doesn’t come easily to Harry East anymore. 

Five years ago East, then 26, fell ill on a Friday afternoon. At first he said it seemed like a case of the flu. By the following Monday he was on life support at MCV Hospital in Richmond.
“I just laid down because I was feeling sick and after that I don’t really remember anything at all,” he said. 

That night, East suffered a stroke that left his right side partially paralyzed and went into cardiac arrest eight times in four hours. Two months later, East left the hospital without his legs or the use of his right arm.

The Goochland resident had been stricken by a little-known staph infection called MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). The rare bug first emerged just decades ago and has been known to spread through hospitals. 

East’s affliction was made worse by endocarditis, an inflammation of the inner layer of the heart. Doctors discovered the condition after he had already suffered the attack. The infection had eaten a hole in his heart valve.

MRSA is known to prey on recent hospital patients with weakened immune systems. East fits the criteria, as he had just undergone surgery on a collapsed lung weeks before the attack. Endocarditis is often associated with oral surgery, which East underwent just weeks before that.

East’s mother says the family will never know exactly how it happened and choose not to dwell on it. 

But moving on wasn’t easy.

Initially, East’s efforts at recovery and rehabilitation seemed to be going well.

He was released from the hospital on June of 2003 and nine months later he was discharged due to his progress. Growing gradually in small increments, East had reached a height of 5’10” on his new prosthetic legs and was learning to move around on them pretty well.

The day after he left rehabilitation he suffered a seizure. It had been just over a year since he suffered his first attack.   

“It was like an anniversary,” he said. “But not a happy one. It pretty much knocked me back about three years.”

“All the progress he’d made walking kind of fell by the wayside,” said East’s mother, Carlease, noting that while doctors said a seizure around the one-year mark was not uncommon, it was no less discouraging for the family. 

But now 30 years old, East is making his second comeback, learning to walk again — again.

“It’s harder this time,” admitted East, who received a new pair of prosthetic legs in July. “I can’t walk right now and I can’t use one arm, but I can actually stand up.”

He works out twice a week in Richmond with David Lawrence of Lawrence Rehabilitation Specialists.

“He’s a great kid and he’s really working hard,” said Lawrence, who has been working with amputees for more than 25 years. “He’s got a long road ahead of him, and a lot of people would be burying their head in the sand, but he brings a great attitude. He’s really an inspiration — even to me.” 

For the time being, East said he doesn’t want to be overly ambitious, but wants to see what might be possible in time. 

“I haven’t set too many goals yet. Just to walk would be nice,” he said. “I guess to drive again would be my main goal.”

It’s a possibility. Because he lacks full use of one arm, East would require a special joystick type driving device as well as a voice-activated control. The technology is expensive, the training is intensive and instructors are few and far between, but East thinks it’s a possibility down the road a ways. 

In the meantime East, who previously installed fiber optic cabled for an electric company took nursing school classes, said he’s looking for a way to get back to work.

“People tell me I’m here for a reason. I’m just trying to figure out what it is,” he said.  “Right now I don’t know what’s possible, but I’m getting tired of just sitting here,” he said.