She Woke Up On A Vacation Completely Paralyzed And Was Saved By Her Brother 6,000 Miles Away
Oct 26, 2018 by apost team
Being young and away from home can be scary, especially if you become sick. This is exactly how Kara Dunn felt. She was 20 years old and away at college. She was attending the University of Arizona while pursuing a major in physiology.
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She remembers a time when she caught the flu during her freshman year at college. Her bones were aching, and she had a sky high fever. She remembers her lungs burning from all the coughing and just complete aching in her chest.
This was a hard time for her but she pulled through it. Although this sickness was one of the worst illnesses she had experienced, it didn't compare to what happened to her when vacationing in Spain.
At first, Dunn didn't know that anything was wrong. She began to have the typical signs of an illness. But, she also developed some other symptoms as well. She had tingling in her face and hands. Her vision began to deteriorate and the feeling in her teeth was lacking. She still pushed it off as an ordinary cold that she taught she would be able to sleep off.
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When she woke, she found out things had gone array. Her cold, so she thought, had caused facial paralysis. Her friend Morgan, that she was vacationing with, took her to the hospital where she was admitted. She also called Dunn's family.
Calling her family turns out to be the best decision that Morgan could've made. The physicians at the Spanish hospital struggled to diagnose her. They initially thought she was having a panic attack and then changed the diagnosis to pneumonia.
She was sedated and intubated. This means they put a breathing tube down her throat. The procedure only seemed to make things worse for her. She remembers that she was conscious for the whole thing, even when she was intubated, and on a ventilator!
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Her family that was 6000 miles away, decided to make the trip. They couldn't sit idle while Dunn was in need of them. Ryan, Dunn's brother, was a medical student at the Mayo Clinic.
When the Spanish physicians had several failed attempts to diagnose her, Ryan felt the need to speak with the neurology professor in his program. He remembers that they had narrowed it down to two possible diagnosis which was Guillain-Barré Syndrome or multiple sclerosis. Neither of these are common.
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With the help of his neurology professor, they wrote a letter to the physicians at the hospital where Dunn was being treated. They then had Morgan present it to them. Within three hours, they had an accurate diagnosis. Although Dunn was fighting, she had a lot of ground to cover before becoming well.
Her family wanted her back home so they raised money to have her airlifted back to the US. She recalls that it was the most terrifying two weeks of her life. She wasn't able to move or speak. She even remembers the doctors saying that she might not make it.
After everything she has been through, she hopes that her story will raise awareness about the illness. She also hope that others can take comfort in knowing that you can overcome the difficulties. She feels that her two weeks of struggling was worth it if she can help others.
Can you imagine waking up and being paralyzed? That must have been so scary! This is a story you will definitely want to pass on.