Encephalitis Cases
McKayla
That night she became violently ill. I have 4 girls and I have never seen any of them that ill. Her fever went to 104.2. We took her to our family doctor. He gave her a shot for the vomiting and said it was the flu. She slept the rest of the day. She was up all night violently ill again. She went to sleep around 6:00am.
Sunday morning around 9 a.m. our 8 yr old Morgan came down stairs to tell me something is wrong with KK [the girls call her KK]. I went to get her and it was like I couldn't wake her up so I woke up my husband and we are lucky enough to live in Ohio near Columbus Children Hospital.
They did a ct scan that showed nothing and blood count was a little high. She was starting to say some strange things, but her fever was still 104.8, so they thought it was the fever. The intern mentioned encephalitis, but the Doctor didn't think she was combative enough for encephalitis. Since my husband is a medic, they said to take her home and watch her.
I checked her at 12:30 and she was finally sleeping. At 2:00 she was roaming around the house talking out of her mind and slobbering. We thought she had a stroke. We took her straight back to the hospital. They did a lumbar puncture and started her on acyclovir right away. We almost lost her that night.
They told us she had herpes simplex encephalitis. She was in picu for 3 days them to her own room she was doing great. Then 3 days in she started having seizures and had to be put on life support to stop them. It worked she hasn't had any seizure since then.
We were told she wouldn't talk or return to normal again but they were wrong. We were in the hospital 3 weeks and 2 days. She did very little therapy of any kind. McKayla started 4th grade with her class on aug. 22 2006. She is still on the "a,b" honor roll. The only problem she has is reading retention, but still maintains "a b" in the class. She is more loving and clings to us a bit more, but I need that after everything we've been through.
The doctors have told us she had a miracle recovery and she has an angel on her shoulder, and after reading some of the stories here I know they are right. I hope our story helps someone and remember never give up hope. Tonya Murphy
Columbus, Ohio. U.S.A.
Posted: Jan 26, 2007
