Grand Rapids Reporter Dies

Back in March, FTVLive told you that WOOD (Grand Rapids) Reporter Barton Deiters has been off the air for months after being bit by a mosquito.

Deiters contracted the West Nile virus and he developed one of the most serious symptoms the virus can cause: encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain.

Sadly, the virus took Deiters’ life.

The station reports that for the last seven months, he fought against West Nile virus, from a mosquito bite, that sent him back and forth from hospital to nursing care, to his home, and finally, back to a nursing home.

He fought to live long enough for his close friends and family, including his wife, Lorena, and children, Harrison and Sophie, to be there with him at the nursing home when he died on Friday.

Barton Deiters was just 56 years old.