User:Must58GT/sandbox

Beginnings
Joshua Warner Talbot was born in Boynton Beach, Florida on September 2, 1987 to Richard and Nancy Talbot. He was the first child of three, preceding in birth his brother Kester Andrew Talbot (b. 1989) and sister Emily Grace Talbot (b. 1993). Josh attended Westwood High School and resided in Austin, Texas. He was admitted to the University of Texas in Austin in 2005, where he majored in Radio-Television-Film in the College of Communication.

Passion
Inspired by a high school class in computer graphics, he developed an early passion for digital arts and animation and aspired to work for Pixar Animation Studios. During his sophomore year at UT, he scored the first milestone on this journey by landing a summer internship at Louisiana Media Productions (LAMP) where he crewed on the filming of two movies, Drones and Overdose.

In his pass times, he excelled at piloting a wakeboard on the lakes of Central Texas, restored a Ford Mustang and was known also as a stellar artist and 3D animator.

Passing
Josh was entering his junior year of studies at UT when he was diagnosed with mononucleosis, a common viral infection. His condition worsened over the course of several days until he was admitted to the emergency room at Northwest Seton Hospital in Austin with life-threatening, multiple organ failure. On September 11, 2008, he was clinically diagnosed with symptons of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), an uncontrolled response of the immune system to the virus which causes mononucleosis. Josh was eventually Medivac'ed to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas under the care of doctors at both MDACC and Texas Children's Hospital. On Thanksgiving morning, November 27, 2008, Josh died peacefully in his sleep with his parents by his side after 82 days of ICU care. A memorial service for Josh was held at the Hill Country Bible Church on December 6, 2008. Josh was also honored by the University of Texas in a UT Remembers ceremony in January, 2009 with family, friends and UT staff members.

Infectious mononucleosis is caused by a common virus and affects ~90% of the U.S. population by the age of 30. The virus usually causes no symptoms or passes with symptoms no more severe than many common, mild illnesses. All of the tests intended to link Josh's illness with known causes of this life-threatening condition were negative. The cause of his illness is still unclear.