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Article published: Dec 20, 2004
Harvin on road to recovery
Senior representative getting better after infection this summer

SUMMERTON — A trip to the hospital in July for what he thought was a megadose of antibiotics turned into a life and death situation for Rep. C. Alex Harvin III.

"It was a comedy of errors," The veteran Democrat said from his home in Summerton. "But there wasn't anything funny about it."

On July 22, Harvin was admitted into Roper Hospital in Charleston to treat a staph infection he said he contracted during an earlier stay at the medical facility. But, instead of being given an antibiotic, he said he was administered a drug he's allergic to, Coumadin, which isn't an antibiotic but a drug used as a blood thinner.

Harvin's allergic reaction was so severe that his liver functions stopped completely and toxins normally removed through the liver built up in his system, causing him to hallucinate and have memory problems.

Harvin's health was so critical that doctors asked his wife, Cathy, to sign a do not resuscitate order.

Once the doctors determined the cause of Harvin's health problems, though, they immediately prescribed the drugs to counteract the Coumadin and Harvin began to get better.

At the same time Harvin was having problems with his liver, he was experiencing a high fever from the staph infection. It was while he was in the hospital's intensive care unit, he said, that doctors determined a shunt they had placed in his portal vein was the source of his infection.
The doctors removed the shunt and Harvin's liver function slowly returned.

Harvin's problems this past summer are the indirect result of a successful hip replacement surgery two years ago.

The surgery was so successful that Harvin drove himself home from the hospital. But within a few months of the surgery, Harvin began to lose weight. But with the Legislature in session, Harvin decided to wait to go for a checkup. At the end of the session, when he did get medical care, doctors found scar tissue from the hip replacement surgery compressing his portal vein and decreasing the blood supply to the liver.

"The doctors did a fast procedure to install a shunt to re-direct the blood supply to the liver," said Cathy Harvin. "This was when Alex got the staph infection in his blood. When they removed the shunt, his liver function returned. Now that the liver is working properly, his body will be able to process the protein and he'll be able to put the weight he's lost back on."

With a close eye on his diet, Harvin has regained more than 20 of the 70 pounds he lost during his ordeal.

Harvin speaks candidly about how serious his health problems were in July.

"There are no logical reasons why I'm living today," Harvin said.

While Harvin credits the doctors with aiding in his recovery, he credits his family and friends for pulling him through the darkest hours.

"Prayer was the only answer to my recovery," he said. "When a ship is sinking, they'll throw you a rope. The people of Clarendon County threw me my rope."

Harvin's strength is slowly returning as he traverses Clarendon County during the holidays thanking his constituents for their many prayers and wishing them a happy holiday season. While he recovers, he occasionally leans on a handcrafted cane given to him by a former page.

"I wouldn't be here today if God didn't have something else for me to do," Harvin said. "I'm thankful to God for saving my life."

Serving the needs of his constituents has been the moving force behind Harvin's 28 years in politics.

"I never thought I could do it," Harvin said Friday. "Just look at the number of people who have retired, who have been defeated or who have died. Just look at all the changes that have gone through. When I got there, I had to pinch myself just to make sure I was there."

Harvin is now the senior member of the House of Representatives, a distinction that garners several high-ranking appointments, including a seat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

"I'm sitting at the front of the room next to the speaker," Harvin said. "Thinking back just 14 years ago, I was so far back in the room I needed a pair of binoculars to see what went on the meetings."

Because of his seniority in the House, Harvin now sits in the seat previously held by the late Solomon "Sol" Blatt, who served in the House for 54 years and as speaker of the House from 1937 to 1946 and again from 1951 to 1973. Blatt also served as speaker emeritus of the South Carolina House from 1973 to 1986.

While Blatt held a seat in the House for five decades, Harvin is closing in on three decades on the job.

"(Currently) nobody in the House has been there longer than I have," he said proudly. "I'm just happy to get the chance to help people."

Harvin said some people spend their entire lives working and never experience the joy of helping their neighbors and friends.

Harvin has been aiding his constituents in a myriad of ways and he's done the job better than anyone else in the House or Senate, according to Sen. John C. Land III, D-Clarendon.

"Alex has the best constituent service of anyone in the House or Senate," Land said Friday afternoon. "I believe Alex even surpasses Strom Thurmond when it comes to serving the people who elected him."

Harvin recognizes the achievements of his constituents through letters.

In 1977, his first year in the House, Harvin wrote more letters to the people he served than all of the other representative combined, Ferrell Cothran, Harvin's first page, remembered.

"From the beginning, Bubba was working for the county," said Cothran, assistant solicitor for the 3rd judicial circuit.

Harvin admits he can't help everyone every time, but he will do what he can.

"If I can feel good about what I am doing to help people, I'm happy," he said. "If I can do one good thing a day to help someone, that's 365 people a year that I've helped."