CBS Local Philadelphia – by Stephanie Stahl
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – It’s a mysterious, newly discovered disease that strikes mainly young women, and it’s often misdiagnosed. Doctors who discovered it, here in Philadelphia, say it’s like your brain is on fire. 3 On Your Side Health Reporter Stephanie Stahl says it starts with personality changes.
Young women dazed, restrained in hospital beds, acting possessed and then becoming catatonic. They’d been so normal, when suddenly their lives went haywire.
“One minute I’d be sobbing, crying hysterically, and the next minute I’d be laughing, said Susannah Cahalan, of New Jersey.
“I was very paranoid and manic. There was something wrong. I thought trucks were following me,” said Emily Gavigan, of Pennsylvania.
And it got worse for Emily Gavigan, who was a sophomore at the University of Scranton. Hospitalized, and out of it, she couldn’t control her arm movements. Then there were seizures, and she needed a ventilator. Her parents were watching their only child slip away.
“It was life and death for weeks,” said Grace Gavigan, Emily’s mom.
“We were losing her. This is something that I couldn’t control,” said Bill Gavigan, Emily’s dad.
Doctors also couldn’t figure out what was wrong with Susannah.
“I had bizarre abnormal movements, would leave my arms out extended, you know, in front of me. I was a relatively normal person, then the next minute I’m hallucinating and insisting that my father had kidnapped me,” said Susannah.
Turns out, Susannah and Emily weren’t mentally ill. They both had an auto immune disease called Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis, when antibodies attack the brain, causing swelling.
Susannah says this is how doctors explained it to her parents, “He told them her brain is on fire. He used those words: ‘Her brain is on fire.’”
A drawing of a clock is how doctors figured out what was going on. Susannah put all the numbers on one side, a clear indication there was a neurological — not a psychological — issue.
“Nobody knew about the condition,” said Dr. Josep Dalmau, a neurologist with the University of Pennsylvania. He first discovered the disease there in 2007.
The rare brain inflammation strikes mainly young women. No one knows why.
“A frequent mistake is to think that the patient has a primary psychiatric disorder. There are many patients that I still think that they are misdiagnosed,” said Dr. Dalmau.
Susannah and Emily were both eventually correctly diagnosed at Penn. Researchers there developed both a spinal fluid test to diagnose the disease, and an immunotherapy to treat it. That can take weeks even months.
Susannah, who’s completely recovered, is back and reunited with her dog in New Jersey. She just published a book about her journey called, Brain On Fire: My Month of Madness.
“You know, thousands of people have now been diagnosed, so it’s a rare condition, but it’s not exceedingly rare. It’s not as rare as initially thought,” said Susannah.
Emily and her parents now want to warn others about the mysterious disease.
“There could be people in comas right now or people stuck in psych wards that have this disease and aren’t being treated properly,” said Emily.
At this point, there is no cure. Emily and Susannah could relapse, which would require a new round of treatments.
Penn recently released a new study about the disease.
For more on Penn Medicine, visit: www.pennmedicine.org
For more on Susannah Cahalan, visit: www.susannahcahalan.com
Sent to us by Sir David Andrew.
Flu shots?
According to this article it’s a mystery…according to people who aren’t working for the sociopaths, its vaccinations.
THEY DO NOT LIKE US HEALTHY.
A healthy slave is a dangerous slave.
A study showing that Anti-NMDA-Receptor Encephalitis has been added into the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as a true, medical causation to an Autism diagnosis.
In other words, an antibody causing autoimmunity can cause regression of behaviors and skills, and then appear to present as a primary psychiatric disorder . Immediate and proper medical care must be given to prevent further damage and permanent disability — “Patients with early immunotherapy performed significantly better. The most severe deficits were observed with inefficient or delayed initial treatment . ” —
Researchers must not be afraid to admit that vaccinations can cause this increasing and horrific medical phenomenon…but then again, they love they fact it causes health issues and death, that’s why they keep using vaccinations…to cull the herd.
Italian Courts rule MMR’s cause Autism.
http://www.whale.to/vaccine/italian_court_of_rimini.html
“We have about 30,000 or 35,000 children that we’ve taken care of over the years, and I don’t think we have a single case of autism in children delivered by us who never received vaccines…….Every doctor now essentially in this country has done something as heinous as the Nazis did, unknowingly.”—-Dr. Mayer Eisenstein
[The scientific proof of vaccine autism has been around for some time but kept from the public by the industry controlled media who trumpet the smokescreen of junk science epidemiology studies that have all been shredded numerous times (helped by Study data kept secret, Autism and genetics, change in diagnosis). Plus the studies done by Dan Olmsted, Donald Meserlian & Generation Rescue, while the thousands of parent anecdotes are ignored for obvious reasons.
Vaccine autism could bring down the vaccine industry followed by Allopathy, which only rests on the vaccine hoax (see), while many reputations would be completely shredded, as Dr Fletcher points out: “There are very powerful people in positions of great authority in Britain and elsewhere who have staked their reputations and careers on the safety of MMR and they are willing to do almost anything to protect themselves.” Also bear in mind the characters running Allopathy: The Medical Mafia (this interview gives an idea, also see: Allopathy Inc personality profile), and Why Vaccination Continues.]
See: MMR studies Government/industry studies The Cochrane
Collaboration http://www.whale.to/a/cochrane_collaboration_h.html Independent
http://www.whale.to/vaccine/vaccine_autism_proven.html
Probobly is vaccines but could it be a form of mad cow disease – we haven`t heard anything at all for a few years of that.
you haven’t met my ex-girlfriend
Did your ex move here in wi back in `82 and was her name Tammy. LOL.I think my Tammy had a mad cow disease crossed with PMS. She was a mean ole lady to be sure. those two perhaps were related ROFLMAO. .
Reminds me of the old joke Why do they call the monthly female excuse PMS?
IT IS JUST A JOKE FOR YOU THEN SKINNED TYPES
MAD COW WAS ALREADY TAKEN!
your not reading the right sites.
i’v consistantly seen reports from the u.s. and canada of mad-cow in wild deer in the forrest area’s.
>hunters beware!<
passed the blood brain barrier.
another article stated autoimmune disorders are viruses which causes me to ask how did they get there?