Patient Stories

In 2015 Francisco was an average 22 year old, awaiting his day to ship out to basic training for the United States Navy. In the weeks leading up to his going away party Francisco started to have flu like symptoms and a severe headache. Thinking nothing of it he continued on with his day-to-day life. However, things started to get worse over the next few days. He experienced hallucinations, out-of-character-like behavior and memory lapses. Francisco shut out family and friends not knowing what was going on with himself. He started to experience seizures and fatigue, he went to see his…

Mio figlio, Alessandro ora ha 11 anni. Tutto è iniziato una mattina.All'età di tre anni appena svegliato ha avuto una brutta crisi epilettica con perdita di coscienza. All'ospedale dopo tanto spavento, ha ripreso conoscenza e ha iniziato ad avere disturbi del movimento e crisi di assenze. Trasferito in un ospedale di Roma il Policlinico Gemelli sono iniziati tutti gli esami per trovare una diagnosi. È stato trattato subito con antiepilettici. Li ha cambiati più volte perché era farmaco resistente. Ha avuto una escalation di tanti disturbi, continue crisi epilettiche molto serie e gravi fino alla manifestazione di opistotono, disturbi del…

We are pleased  to share with you the remarkable and miraculous story of Ariana from New Zealand. When the doctors had given up, her family did not. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLnKL6lS9KY&feature=youtu.be

Six months ago I nearly lost my life to Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis. A mostly rare condition, however very often misdiagnosed, therefore making it rather challenging to fully determine the scale of those truly affected by this life threatening and horrific condition. I am by all accounts a healthy, active, and happy 39 year old woman. I am a wife and a mother to two beautiful young daughters, ages 4 and 7. It was July 16th, 2019, a normal Tuesday afternoon. I work from home and was on a typical business meeting call when the first slurred word came out of…

Hey! I'm Aleena. I was working at a preschool at the time and was attending a community college. I was really struggling with depression and suicidal tendencies, which impacted my academic performance. I started feeling drained around December 2015 and once January 2016 came, I hardly had the energy to move. I remember texting my friend and telling her my head was pounding, which is the same thing I told my mom when I woke her up one night mid-January. The last few memories I have are of me laying in my bed, feeling as if though a metal door…

Yasmin became ill on 10/06/2011 and was diagnosed with Anti NMDA Receptor Encephalitis. On the 6th day she stopped breathing and was put on full life-support where she remained for 15 long months sedated with Propophol, Ketamine and other medications. Repeated MRI scans failed to locate the tiny teratoma that was on her ovary. After 11 months an internal vaginal scan located a teratoma on her right ovary. Yasmin had both her ovaries removed the next day. Sadly, her body was beginning to break down and her antibodies remained raised until her death on 16/09/2012. I donated her brain to…

This is my son Elliott. He’s a friendly, soccer-lover and a member of the JROTC Raiders Varsity team of his school. He was in his freshman year trying to adjust to a new school until last September, when he started complaining about a weird taste in his mouth, to the point that he didn’t want to eat because everything tasted weird; then he complained about weird distorted vision, pressure on the left side of his head and not feeling himself. I took him to his pediatrician and he said that maybe he wasn’t eating properly for all the kinds of…