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My brother, Andrew Truong was admitted into the hospital on April 25, 2005 at 19 years old. He was showing signs of hallucinations and dimentia. He was completely dillusional. At first, they thought he was on drugs. They soon found out that it was Encephalitis/Meningitis. They conducted numerous spinal taps which all came back clear. They suspected West Nile virus but that test came back negative along with Mad Cow Disease and Lime Disease. They think that it was caused by Epstein Barr Virus (mononucleosis) but they have never seen a case of Epstein Barr that causes Encephalitis this severe before.
During the first 2 weeks of his hospitalization, he was having uncontrollable seizures lasting up to 5 minutes each. The neorologist put him on 4 different types of seizure medications including Dilantin, Phenobarbitol, and Depakote. He slept for 5 days straight (which is a coma? I don't know) He was placed on a ventilator to assist his breathing and a feeding tube for nutrition. When he finally woke up, he was looking much better. He pulled out his own ventilator and the feeding tube. He remembered his name, the family, forming complete sentences, and became extremely emotional. He kept wanting to get out of bed and go home.
3 weeks into his hospitalization, he developed an extreme allergic reaction to one of the medications he was given. They were not sure which one it could be. He developed Steven's Johnson Syndrome. His skin started to fall off and he was basically burning from the inside out. He was transferred to the burn unit and he deteriorated from there. On May 28, 2005 he passed away from Septic Shock because he body had endured so much.
There are still so many unanswered questions and so much that my familiy does not understand about his condition. My advise to the families that are experiencing the same thing: make sure you know what the doctors are doing, write down questions when you think of them to ask, and ASK QUESTIONS because if you don't ask, alot of times they will not tell you everything. You can email me if you want more details about my brother's condition. This was hard for me to write, I am still healing and moarning the loss of my only brother. Much love to anyone who has experienced this horrible illness and stay strong.
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Jolie's Story for her brother
CA, U.S.A.
Posted: July 28, 2005 |
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