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updated: 7/8/2018 10:46 AM
Constable: What made Schaumburg woman catatonic? A rare disease misdiagnosed as mental illness
Burt Constable
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Behind those once-bright eyes of that catatonic woman staring off into the space of her hospital room hides the vivacious wife Paul Braker loves.
When and how April Kay Braker will emerge from her unresponsive state is as much of a mystery as the strange circumstances that put her there -- a rare disease that causes a body's immune system to attack the brain and often is misdiagnosed as a mental illness.
"She's young, motivated and has a smile and personality that is hard to resist," Paul says of his 30-year-old wife, who grew up in the Philippines. Hundreds of photographs show the energetic Schaumburg couple hiking through Iceland, Utah and nearby Starved Rock State Park, where they can bring along Moses, their chocolate-colored standard poodle. Working on her master's degree to become a nurse practitioner, April recently started a new job as an emergency room nurse at Chicago's Rush Medical Center and wasn't about to let a headache and fever slow her down during the last week of April...
This is being treated as NMDAR encephalitis and apparently an ovarian teratoma was removed but she is still not responding to treatment. I'm wondering about this toxo connection:
That patient turned around when an antibiotic was given to treat the toxo.