Crystal Brown was a healthy mother-of-two when she was suddenly struck down by a life-threatening illness that left her paralysed and unable to breathe.
This was the beginning of the 33-year-old Queensland woman’s incredible journey of recovery, which has been documented in a heartwarming video by her boyfriend and viewed more than 100,000 times.
In July last year, Crystal had been feeling unwell, but doctors had first dismissed her complaints as “all in her head”, her boyfriend, Joseph Papa, told Nine News.
Joseph said it was on the couple's third emergency room visit that a doctor thought it could be more serious.
"Within an hour or so she was put into an induced coma because she lost her ability to breathe," he told Nine News.
It was Guillain-Barre Syndrome - a rare disorder in which the body's immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system. It meant that instead of protecting her body from outside threats, her immune system was damaging her nerves.
Crystal stayed in the coma for seven days. Once she awoke she faced the confronting task of learning to talk, walk and use all her muscles again.
Joseph, who had only been dating Crystal for two months before her diagnosis, chose to stick by her and support her during the arduous recovery - as well as capture it on film.
"I ended up staying at the hospital every night, I slept on a chair next to her bed," he said.
Last week, Joseph shared the results of her recovery in a video posted to Facebook along with a plea for donations to a GoFundMe page to assist with medical bills as well as the family's expenses.
In it, Crystal can be seen in a coma, undergoing physiotherapy and painful treatment, then later performing tasks like opening bottles and finally, walking again.
Top Comments
This has happened to someone close to me too - was told for 4 years she had gastro or diarrhoea when in fact she had Crohnes disease which meant many years without treatment that could have slowed the progression of the disease.
I know some people are drama queens and go to emergency at the drop of a hat but that shouldn't stop Doctors and nurses from taking every single person seriously.
Also... a huge KUDOS to her boyfriend, I don't think anyone would have held it against him to step back from such a new relationship but to stick by her just shows how special they both are!
Wishing her a full and speedy recovery
Actually, GBS can be quite difficult to diagnose and often isn't picked up until it starts to exhibit all the classical signs. As it is often preceded by a gastro type illness some weeks before, and can have a lot of vague symptoms prior to its classical pattern onset, it can be hard to pick, even when you are assessing a patient carefully and not dismissing them.
Those situations are pretty different! G-B is pretty rare and progresses extremely quickly. You basically have to diagnose it correctly early and quickly. What happened to your friend just sounds shit - it's much slower progressing and is relatively common - much for opportunity for diagnosis and early intervention.