“Emily was like a different person. We didn’t know who she was,” Emily’s dad Bill told CNN. “We had gone from having this daughter who was perfectly normal, happy, vibrant … with a bright future ahead.
“All of a sudden, this all came crashing down.”
A year after she had developed her worrying symptoms, Emily was in a critical condition, unable to walk or speak and on a ventilator, when her family saw an interview on TV.
New York Post reporter Susannah Cahalan was being interviewed following an article she’d written about her “mysterious lost month of madness.”
In it she talked about suffering similar symptoms to Emily and how doctors had first mistaken it for a mental illness, when in fact she had an autoimmune disease where her body was attacking her brain.
But still doctors did not see the connection. It wasn’t until Emily’s dad found the article that Susannah had written and handed it to the doctors did everything change.
“I said would you please test her for this,” an emotional Bill told the Today Show. “It was about an hour later and they put her on the helicopter and took her to the University of Pennsylvania to be treated by the same doctor that treated Susannah.”
Emily was put under the care of Dr. Josep Dalmau, a neurologist at the University of Pennsylvania, who is credited with discovering this rare disease.
The disease was only given a name in 2007: anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, or NMDARE for short, according to CNN.
Thankfully Emily has made a full recovery and is finishing her education.
Find out more about this rare and devastating illness in the clip below from The Today Show.
[arve url=”https://youtu.be/gfteHaKj8yc” /]
Emily is so lucky that someone else had already gone through this ordeal and was brave enough to share her story.
Thank goodness she could be treated by this very talented doctor and has made a full recovery.
Her bravery and determination to walk and talk again after such a harrowing year is so inspirational. Please share if you agree.