Mystery Illness Leaves Florida Girl Unable to Walk, Talk
By KATIE MOISSE
Sept. 21, 2012
Brianna Skriver was a bouncy, blond "wild child" who loved playing dress-up and jumping rope with her fellow 5-year-olds, according to her mom. But a mysterious illness swiftly stole her ability to walk and talk, leaving her family desperate for answers.
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"Doctors say it's a neurodegenerative disorder, but they don't know what it is or why it's happening," said Tammy Skriver, talking through tears. "It's excruciating. I get down on my knees all the time and just pray this is a dream."
Skriver is one of 550 patients in the Undiagnosed Diseases Program, a branch of the National Institutes of Health that aims to diagnose and cure the country's most puzzling patients.
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Thinking back to the soccer game, Tammy Skriver often wonders if something triggered her daughter's decline, which coincided with a new drug for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and some school vaccinations.
"I asked [the doctors], 'Could it be that?' But they said it's unrelated," she said. ...
