Hi, I'm Michelle, and my husband, Stuart, and I are caring for our 36 year old son after he developed Guillain Barre Syndrome in August 2025 and was left unable to use his hand, arms, legs and feet.
What is Guillain Barre Syndrome? It's a rare disease, an inflammatory neuropathy that can occur after a virus and stress, with men being more prone than women. It is an autoimmune response that attacks the nerves, leaving the person with varying degrees of paralysis. After treatment in hospital, it resolves on its own but in its own time. This can be weeks, months, and occasionally years. Sometimes people are left without movement in an area of their body. However, many recover, and with work to gain back their strength, muscle and mobility, are able to go on with their lives and careers.
David is a football (soccer) referee in the US so he is usually very active. He loves his job and is very good at it.
He also works full-time in a chiropractic surgery. One day he felt unwell with strange sensations in his arms and legs. He was admitted to hospital and treated for Guillain Barre Syndrome. He then went into a rehabilitation hospital for eight weeks. The syndrome causes a great deal of pain in the first weeks so it was a very difficult time for David and he got very little sleep. Unable to move from a bed, he had to learn total dependence on staff for every normal function of life we all take for granted, from being toileted, to being fed, using a catheter, having his teeth cleaned, being washed and dressed. Once, on a wheelchair visit to the bathroom, the staff member left the room momentarily only to discover David had passed out, slipped out of the chair and cut his head on the floor.
Physiotherapists at the rehabilitation centre worked hard with him on regaining mobility, using range of motion movements, helping him walk using exoskeleton equipment and a walking frame, and many other therapies.
Learning to walk again at the rehab centre
David was making small, incremental improvements. However, because Guillain Barre ultimately resolves on its own, they told him they would need to discharge him as the bed would be needed for other patients. Unfortunately, for a period of time, staff at the rehab centre neglected to weigh David and instead carried his previous weight forward. Also, the food was insufficient in both quality and quantity for the weight loss that can be caused by Guillain Barre, and for someone like David who is tall and slim and has a fast metabolism. On the next visit from the doctor and physio, they were shocked to discover that due to lack of sufficient nutrition he had lost a significant amount of weight and at over 6ft now weighed less than 8 stone ( 111 lbs). He had become skin and bone and consequently also lost the energy needed for recovery.
I made calls asking family to take food into him as a matter of urgency and friends and family pulled together to get extra food to him, pulling him back from the brink of even worse health. However, seriously underweight, and with nowhere to go where he could receive consistent care after discharge, David asked if he could come and stay with us in the UK. Here we would be able to provide him with the consistent care and nutrient-dense, high calorie wholefood diet he would need to begin to gain weight and strength. However, it meant leaving his four children and known support structures and friends behind. That was obviously hard to do, but consistent care and his recovery had to take priority.
David with his four children at the rehab centre in the US
Stuart hurriedly decorated another room in the house where we have only lived for a few months and transferred his office into that room, leaving the lighter and brighter room for David. In a very short space of time we managed to create a welcoming space for David and obtain equipment such as an adjustable bed and many smaller items, as well as create a meal plan and fill the larder in readiness. Stuart left for the US and returned on 23rd October with our son David in a wheelchair, and life together in the fight against the results of Guillain Barre began.
Arriving in the UK
David can move his feet and legs to a degree and has been walking with leg splints for a distance (approx 60-70 feet) once helped to stand. He cannot yet use his arms and hands. Each day, Stuart helps David begin a new day with washing and dressing, takes him to the toilet and feeds him his meals. After being shown by the rehab centre what physical therapy to do, Stuart is taking him through the exercises and helping him do some walking each day. Each day I prepare three hearty meals and high calorie snacks, always trying to be a day or two ahead in preparation, ensure David has suitable supplements each day, and on some days help David soak his hands or feet in warm water with therapeutic essential oils and massage and move those areas.
Stuart doing the range of movement exercises he was shown by the physio at the rehab centre
The next purchase we need to make is this walking frame with arm supports as he can't yet use his hands.
The hearty and healthy wholefood diet needed to help him gain weight requires planning, lots of calories and a range of supplements to give the best opportunity for nerve endings to be restored
Notes on meals, what supplements given, what therapy is done, what achievements made, sleep quality and anything else of significance are made each day
There are small improvements. David has felt some improved strength. He has also had setbacks as some historical problems with his neck have affected his sleep which has already had challenges due to the syndrome, and he has woken with debilitating headaches. However, we are finding solutions. He is brave and determined. His faith in God, in spite of the challenges, remains true. Naturally he wants to get back to normal life and be able to move normally again. We are all believing God for that to happen as soon as possible, with God's help, good food, increased weight and the necessary care and therapy.
The bright and cheery room we put together quickly for David's arrival. As David is waiting for the returned use of his hands, he has his phone very close to him so that he can use voice to create communications and tap the phone with his nose.
To provide this we need support. There is a lot of extra food to buy. And although he is a British citizen, because he's been out of the country, he can't automatically access a doctor or NHS physiotherapy. We are having to work on that and in the meantime will need to pay for private physical therapy focused on the nervous system, even if it is once every week or two, while we fill in the gaps.
This Go Fund Me page isn't just about financial support. Some people have already been very generous in helping to fund David's plane ticket to get here and we would like to take this opportunity to thank you if you have already blessed us with financial support to help this happen. We literally could not have brought David here for care without your help! In all honesty, the extra finances we will need is hard to determine. We'll only know as we go along, and I've obviously had to put an amount of £3000 for the purpose of this site being ongoing during David's recovery. We are now in touch with a local physiotherapist who is also an expert in neurological conditions and we do know that a private session (45 mins - 1hr) costs approximately £100 per home visit and £80 per clinic visit. He has his first home consultation on 31st October.
Aside from the financial side, this site is also about welcoming you on the journey, letting you know how it's going and how to pray, what improvements we are seeing, and what David is achieving in his recovery. Try living for one day, even one hour , even five minutes without your hands, and without being able to get up and walk, and it makes you realise how much we take for granted and how vital and precious every small achievement is.
Also, sharing this journey with you helps us as David's parents and carers. It's a full-time job, along with other work, and we need the support and encouragement of friends and family too.
It's also an opportunity for you to send words of love and encouragement to David, so please do, because day by day, every bit of love and support makes the difference. That's what true love is about. Please be with us on the journey, with God, to help David recover his movement, his independence and his normal life and work.
See David's Youtube video for his story at the link here:
David's Guillain Barre Story (35 mins)
With love and thanks. Michelle xxx