ENCEPHALITIS CASES

Encephalitis Cases

Matthew

My son Matthew contracted encephalitis on the 12th Feb 2005, the day he turned 6 months old. Up until that point he was doing fine, a very healthy child with typical development. That day I will never forget, he started off seemingly with a cold and a bit of a temp, by the evening he had developed facial twitching. I didn't really want to go to the hospital with him (Sheffield Childrens Hospital - England) as I didn't think it was that serious, but when we got there he was admitted straight away, although nobody knew what was wrong. We were in isolation as they queried meningitis, then moved to intensive care as he began to have full fits.

After 2 weeks Matthew had returned to being the little boy he had been before, he was laughing, feeding and happy, with perhaps only a very slight right sided facial weekness. A paediatric neurological consultant had told us he suspected encephalitis but did not elaborate and I did not have a clue what it was, I'd never heard of it. Anyway, we went home for a week, by the end of that first week Matthew had gone downhill rapidly. I went into his bedroom one morning and he could not look at me or focus on anything, he was very floppy and unresponsive. We raced back to the hospital where he was readmitted. He was then kept in for a further 2 1/2 months while he had endless tests, with lots of negatice results and no improvement in him. I was then informed that he was badly brain damaged, although to what extent they didn't know, as he was so young. He also had an involuntary movement disorder, and was unable to feed normally as he had no suck or swallow reflex. He had to be fed via a nasogastric tube.

Since leaving hospital Matthew has improved so much. He still has no limb control and some of the disorder is still there, however he can now look and focus on things, he can eat and drink, he laughs and smiles constantly, he knows people in the family. He has regular therapy, we have no idea how much he will improve but our fingers are crossed for him.

Leila
Sheffield, U.K.

Posted: Dec 15, 2005

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