HARBOR SPRINGS (WWJ) – A rare fungal infection primarily seen in the Midwest and the south-central and Southeastern United States took the life of a Northern Michigan chef after he contracted the disease just before Thanksgiving.
In an update from family and friends in a GoFundMe post , Ian Pritchard, 29, died on Saturday (Feb. 3) at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit after a months-long battle with blastomycosis, an infection caused by breathing in microscopic fungal spores from the air.
Ian was a beloved chef at Rodrigo’s, a Mexican restaurant in Harbor Springs with his father Ron Pritchard — a well-known radio DJ with Midwestern Broadcasting Company in Traverse City currently on the air with WCCW-FM and KLT The Rock Station — adding that he was a “good kid.”
“People love his food, people love him,” Ron said.
According to his GoFundMe , Ian was first admitted to a hospital in Petoskey the week before Thanksgiving, but the disease ravaged his lungs in the following weeks. A little over a month later, doctors said he was in critical condition and a lung transplant was Ian’s best chance of surviving the infection.