It all started on January 1, 2001. I began to have headaches that would not go away. I had taken Excedrine, aspirin, and Tylenol and the headache would not go away. On the 4th of January I accompanied my mother to her job, at North Shore University Hospital, because I had a docters appointment in the afternoon with my internist, ironically in reference to my headaches. In the morning at about 9:15 I went down to the deli in the hospital to get a cup of coffee and that was the last thing I remember until I "woke" up in my hospital room 2 1/2 months later. On my way down the elevator I felt a little dizzy and I remember dropping my change I had in my hand. From what I'm told when I got off the elevator I had a seizure and collapsed on the floor. A docter from radiology found me and took me to the emergency room, unfortunately I didn't have any identification on my person, I had left it on my mother's desk. After about 2 hours and a lot of injections and tests I woke up long enough to tell the nurse my mothers name and which department in the hospital she worked in, then came the Grand Mal Seizure. My mother says it was the most horrifying thing she has ever seen. I was hospitalized for 2 months in North Shore Hospital, spending 2 weeks of the time there in the ICU (intensive care unit). I was on respiration machines, feeding tubes, IV tubes, etc. No one has been able to explain why or how I got this virus, or why it was so severe. It was finally determined that I was well enough to be transferred to a rehabilitation hospital. This is where I was taught how to walk and read and speak again, through the efforts of well qualified Physical, Occupational, Speech, and Music Therapists. I spent 1 1/2 months there and was then discharged to my home. This is when I began 2 months of out-patient Rehab. I went 5 days a week for 7 hours a day. Here is where they brought me back to a more "normal" state, and I was functioning at almost 100% capacity.

Encephalitis Victim