Currents News Staff
Abigail Palacios was a healthy, active two-year-old. Then suddenly she was paralyzed from the neck down, a ventilator breathing for her.
“She had a double ear infection and a really high fever of 103. Then, a few days went by and she woke up and her arm was completely paralyzed, randomly. And the night before she was using it just a few hours before,” said Erica Palocios, Abigail’s mother.
The diagnosis: acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM.
It’s very similar to a disease from long ago: polio. Like polio, AFM is also thought to be caused by a virus but no one knows what virus, and why it affects different children differently.
For example, Abigail’s siblings were sick at the same time she was, but they were never paralyzed.
Across the country, the CDC reports 62 confirmed cases of AFM in 22 states, and 93 possible cases.In an outbreak in 2014, there were 120 confirmed cases. In 2016, 149 cases.
“It’s really heartbreaking. No parent should ever have to experience that and what makes it worse, it’s not the tubes, it’s not the treatments, what makes is worse is not knowing what caused it,” said Palocios.
It’s hard to know how Abigail will do in the future or if she’ll ever be able to walk on her own. She still doesn’t use her left arm, and her right arm is weak.
“We don’t know a lot about the long-term prognosis of AFM right now. That’s something that we’re still really learning about,” said Dr. Laura Jones of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.