Welcome Back, Mayor Brown !

Mullica Township Mayor Jim Brown, 71, in front of Township Hall Aug. 26. It was his first township meeting since June 26, after a tick bite landed him in intensive care.

By MICHELLE BRUNETTI POST Staff Writer

MULLICA TOWNSHIP — Last week Mayor Jim Brown attended his first council meeting in two months, after a tick bite and Lyme disease diagnosis landed him in a hospital intensive care unit with high fevers that were difficult to contain.

“I have been bitten by hundreds of ticks over the years,” Brown said, and never got sick before.

Brown said his back was itching and his wife, Mary, found a tick embedded there.

“She got it out and it seemed fine,” he said. “People say there’s a bull’s eye and all that, but that wasn’t the case for me.”

About 10 days later he had a fever that lasted two days, which he chalked up to a virus.

But the following weekend the fevers started again, and Brown’s doctor sent him to the hospital.

“The fever wouldn’t break,” Brown said. “They packed me with ice for four days. It was only when the fever went down I started realizing what was going on. Before that I couldn’t lift my head off the pillow.”

Brown said he was in Kennedy Health System hospital for 10 days total, four in the ICU; and then he spent another three weeks in a rehab facility where he received intravenous antibiotics.

“I’m just now starting to feel better,” he said last week. He said he is exercising regularly and lifting weights to get both his strength and stamina back. He’ll need it to keep his schedule. In addition to being mayor of Mullica, he is vice president of the Atlantic County Mayor's Association and president of the Atlantic County Association of Township Officials.


Entire Story at
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/breaking/mullica-mayor-back-on-job-after-severe-case-of-lyme/article_acfc09f6-32f2-11e4-a12c-001a4bcf887a.html#facebook-comments