Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://chicagopressrelease.com/press-releases/h1n1-triggers-brain-damage-in-10-year-old-girl
CHICAGO (CBS) ― Back in October of 2009, Abby Toll appeared to be a perfectly healthy 9-year-old, but after coming down with H1N1, Abby, now 10, can barely walk without a walker. CBS 2?s Mai Martinez reports Abby says that?s the scariest feeling.
?I can?t walk from here to there without falling or tripping. It?s just, I?m scared,? she said, following a checkup at UIC.
Abby?s parents Rianne and Jeff Toll are just as scared.
?We?re not really sure what?s going on. It?s the hearing loss. Now there?s a peripheral issue. She can?t see peripherally. Her grip?s a lot worse. She has no reflexes at all in her legs,? said Jeff Toll, as he clutched his wife?s hand.
Abby?s doctors at UIC say H1N1 triggered a dormant condition in Abby which likely would not have come out until much later in her life.
?Abby has Ataxia, so what you?re seeing is, it?s caused by damage to a part of her brain called the cerebellum,? said Dr. Alma Bicknese, a pediatric neurologist at UIC.
?This particular virus has a tendency to go in and cause more neurologic problems,? Dr. Bicknese explained, when talking about how H1N1 caused Abby?s current medical issues.
Dr. Bicknese says had Abby not come down with H1N1, she likely would be fine right now.
And she says Abby?s case isn?t an isolated one. After talking with colleagues at other hospitals in the Chicago area, Dr. Bicknese estimates about a hundred kids in the Chicago area found themselves in similar situations.
?We weren?t counting them. There were so many kids that were coming in,? she said.
Many of those children got better, but Dr. Bicknese says some, including Abby, suffered what appears to be permanent neurological damage. In Abby?s case, significant loss of hearing, vision and motor skills...
CHICAGO (CBS) ― Back in October of 2009, Abby Toll appeared to be a perfectly healthy 9-year-old, but after coming down with H1N1, Abby, now 10, can barely walk without a walker. CBS 2?s Mai Martinez reports Abby says that?s the scariest feeling.
?I can?t walk from here to there without falling or tripping. It?s just, I?m scared,? she said, following a checkup at UIC.
Abby?s parents Rianne and Jeff Toll are just as scared.
?We?re not really sure what?s going on. It?s the hearing loss. Now there?s a peripheral issue. She can?t see peripherally. Her grip?s a lot worse. She has no reflexes at all in her legs,? said Jeff Toll, as he clutched his wife?s hand.
Abby?s doctors at UIC say H1N1 triggered a dormant condition in Abby which likely would not have come out until much later in her life.
?Abby has Ataxia, so what you?re seeing is, it?s caused by damage to a part of her brain called the cerebellum,? said Dr. Alma Bicknese, a pediatric neurologist at UIC.
?This particular virus has a tendency to go in and cause more neurologic problems,? Dr. Bicknese explained, when talking about how H1N1 caused Abby?s current medical issues.
Dr. Bicknese says had Abby not come down with H1N1, she likely would be fine right now.
And she says Abby?s case isn?t an isolated one. After talking with colleagues at other hospitals in the Chicago area, Dr. Bicknese estimates about a hundred kids in the Chicago area found themselves in similar situations.
?We weren?t counting them. There were so many kids that were coming in,? she said.
Many of those children got better, but Dr. Bicknese says some, including Abby, suffered what appears to be permanent neurological damage. In Abby?s case, significant loss of hearing, vision and motor skills...