Ana Gary

The Gary family left for a Mexican Spring Break trip on Friday, March 30.  We were having a great time and playing in the pool on Saturday.  We went to lunch and Ana complained of pain in her arm.  Problems progressed over the next 24 hours to almost total weakness on right side arm and leg.  She was also having some strange feelings in the left side. We went to ER in Cancun on Sunday evening and knew immediately we needed to get her home. 

Ana had more symptoms including unequal pupils and left side numbness and no feeling of hot/cold.  The right side continued to have  almost total weakness.

We quickly realized the Mexican hospital would not provide a level of care we were comfortable with and the language barrier was scary.  We began to search for a medical transport to get Ana back to the United States.

The doctors in Mexico ruled out a stroke and meningitis, but no real answers.  Luckily, by Monday we were able to get a confirmed medical flight out for 2:00 am Tuesday morning to GR.  (Ana now has no college fund, but she said it was worth it.)

We were delayed a bit getting out of Mexico, but the transport team was amazing and we arrived in GR about 9:00 am and came by ambulance to Helen Devos Children's Hospital.

Within a couple of hours we were getting proper medical tests and getting MRI’s done and getting to the bottom of what was ailing our Ana.  

The diagnosis is a lesion on her cervical spine.  It’s called transverse myelitis.  Treating her with steroids for 3-5 days and then we will evaluate from there.  Not sure what caused it.  They will try to figure it out, but we may never know. It's a possibility this could be the onset of some type of disease, time will tell.

She will need to go to Mary Free Bed after she leaves the hospital to for continued work on strengthening her muscles.  Hopefully, she will get 100% strength back but there are no guarantees.

We are feeling really good about where we are, the treatment we are getting and the plan in place.  I can't describe how scary it's been with the language barrier and questionable care she was getting in Mexico.  Thank God we are home!