Bobby Davis narrowly survived a brush with Wegener's Granulomatosis, a disease often mistaken for a sinus infection.

Local resident shares information on ‘Wegener's Granulomatosis'

While most people who get them suffer for a short period of time, Alleghany County's Bobby Davis has seen personally that a sinus infection can turn into something much worse.

The 55-year-old Davis, who moved to the Sparta area when he married his wife, Brenda, in 1972, had a sinus infection in late May and early June of 2003. By the middle of June, 2003, Davis had been diagnosed with Wegener's Granulomatosis (WG), an uncommon disease in which the blood vessels are inflamed. This inflammation damages important organs of the body by limiting blood flow to those organs and destroying normal tissue, according to the Wegener's Granulomatosis Association (WGA). "It started as a sinus infection that I had for two weeks before I started coughing up blood and experiencing shortness of breath," explained Davis.

At the time his illness began, Davis worked as a customer service technician for Skyline Telephone Membership Corporation. He went to work on June 5, 2003, but said he felt so bad on June 6 that he went to Alleghany Memorial Hospital (AMH).

"They gave me antibiotics here (at AMH), and told me I had double pneumonia," said Davis. "I didn't get better so I went to my doctor in Galax, Va. the next day. He told me the same thing (double pneumonia) and put me in Galax (Twin-County Regional Hospital) hospital for four days."

Davis left Twin-County on June 11, he said, but didn't get to stay home for long. "He didn't get any better, so I took him to urgent care after a couple of days," said Brenda Davis. "Soon after that I took him to his doctor, and then a couple of days later he couldn't get out of his chair, so I took him to the emergency room in Galax."

"Dr. Wright from Independence was on call," said Bobby Davis. "He had seen Wegener's before and told me he couldn't help me and immediately sent me to Forsyth (Medical Center) in an ambulance on 100 percent oxygen.

"Dr. Hinson examined me at Forsyth....Told me he'd have to do a lung biopsy to make sure, but he thought I had Wegener's."

Davis continued, "This was on a Friday morning....Dr. Hinson told me at first he would do the lung biopsy the next morning, but after a second examination he told me I wouldn't be here the next morning.

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