Asher Dahl fighting AFM

The odds are 1 in 1,000,000 and the winnings are terrible; AFM or Acute Flaccid Myelitis (a virus similar to polio).

AFM is a very rare disease and dear Asher won this terrible lottery last week. He’s 3 years old.

His story starts a few days before Halloween as he had been fighting a bad cold. The symptoms continued to get worse until finally on Halloween it meant a trip to the ER at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Once at the hospital the clinical staff started to recognize more severe symptoms…he was losing the ability to move his right arm and becoming unable to sit up. After a spinal tap to check his spinal fluid, Asher was quickly diagnosed with AFM and admitted to the hospital.

He’s been there since.

Since 2014 there have only been 396 cases of confirmed AFM in the U.S. The CDC is still trying to unravel what exactly this virus is (CDC - AFM) . It affects the nervous system, specifically the area of the spinal cord called gray matter, and the muscles and reflexes in the body become weak, causing limpness/paralysis in one or more limbs. CDC estimates that less than one in a million people in the United States will get AFM every year.

The Dahl family is still waiting on a better understanding of what this means for their youngest son (he and his twin sister are the youngest of 5 siblings). Prognosis for AFM varies greatly – some children recover almost fully while others have lifelong difficulty with movement and undergo many months or years of rehab. While others still are more prone to respiratory failure and must continue on a breathing machine or risk death.

Asher will be in the hospital for at least another week while the doctors and clinical staff make a plan for his recovery. The Dahls are looking at lots of rehab and doctor visits for the foreseeable future. Currently, they are unable to transport Asher as he cannot sit in a regular car seat.

The medical expenses are unknown at this point, but likely will be non stop for quite some time.  

Please consider helping out with expenses for Anne and Chris and their family.

We’ll post updates as we know more.