California teenager, 13, woke up paralyzed the day after Christmas

On Christmas morning, 13-year-old Isabel woke to gifts under the tree, laughter and smiles to be shared with her twin sister and brother, and a new TV for her room. 

The morning after Christmas, she woke to find her legs paralyzed. 

Isabel’s legs had suddenly started aching terribly on Christmas day and then went numb, but she’d been able to walk upstairs, hoping to sleep off whatever was making her weak and sore. 

The Kirby family was baffled and terrified. Isabel wound up in Akron Children’s Hospital near their home in Medina county, California. 

She was diagnosed with acute flaccid myelitis, a rare, polio-like condition that doctors believe arises after infection with an enterovirus. 

There’s some debate over whether AFM itself can be fatal and doctors are hopeful that Isabel will recover and walk again, but it’s likely to take weeks or even months of therapy, her family told the Akron Beacon Journal.  

Isabel Kirby woke up the day after Christams paralyzed from the waist down, and now relies on a wheelchair to get around. Doctors believe she has acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) 

By afternoon on Christmas, Isabel knew something was off. 

‘My legs went into this big huge pain,’ she told the Beacon Journal. 

‘Then they went numb.’ 

She and her family wrote it off and hoped some rest would set Isabel straight, but in the morning she couldn’t get herself out of bed – in the most literal sense.   

Isabel’s upper body was fine, but from thee waist down she was totally immobilized.   

Her doctors believe that AFM has left the middle schooler paralyzed. 

AFM primarily strikes children and teenagers and has had the medical community largely stumped since its emergence in 2014.  

Not every patient tests positive for a strain of enterovirus in their spinal fluid, but so far most seem to have been ill with some kind of cold shortly before diagnosis.   

The 13-year-old from Medina county was happy and healthy the day before, according to her family

The 13-year-old from Medina county was happy and healthy the day before, according to her family 

On Christmas morning she opened gifts with her brother, twin sister, father (pictured) and mother (not pictured), but by that afternoon, Isabel's legs were hurting and later went numb

On Christmas morning she opened gifts with her brother, twin sister, father (pictured) and mother (not pictured), but by that afternoon, Isabel’s legs were hurting and later went numb

Isabel’s doctors have sent a sample of her spinal fluid and the details of her case to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for confirmation, according to the Beacon Journal. 

They believe that the virus is probably in her spinal cord, either damaging the cord itself, causing Isabel’s immune system to misfire in an attempt to attack the virus but hitting her nervous system instead, or some combination of the two. 

AFM, for reasons still unclear, tends to rear its head more considerably every two years. Case counts have been much higher in 2014, 2016 and 2018 than in the intermittent years. 

The odds of developing AFM are approximately one in a million. Enteroviruses are common causes of viral infections, but only a very few people develop AFM afterwards, and it often doesn’t follow immediately.

It’s not clear why some people develop it and others don’t. 

Before her sudden paralysis, Isabel ‘was perfectly happy, healthy,’ her mother, Noel Kirby, told the Beacon Journal. 

Despite her sudden illness, Isabel (center) is keeping a positive attitude and hopeful that she can 'push through' and walk again with physical therapy

Despite her sudden illness, Isabel (center) is keeping a positive attitude and hopeful that she can ‘push through’ and walk again with physical therapy 

‘We can’t comprehend it. It doesn’t feel real right now.’ 

Isabel has been given plasma exchange treatments, which may help to assuage the symptoms. 

For the moment, she’s using a wheelchair to get around and, in physical therapy, she’s begun to get back some hip movement and a little feeling in her legs. 

‘It’s a lot, but I try to just go with the flow,’ she said. 

‘Try to push through.’ 

The Kirby’s friends from church have set up a GoFundMe to help them cover the expenses of Isabel’s hospitalization, treatment and therapy.     

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk