Help for Travis

Travis was the picture of health. Only in his mid-30s, he had a physically active job. He worked tirelessly on his fixer-upper home while caring for his energetic three-year-old daughter and he loved fishing. In fact, Travis had just competed in a fishing tournament with his father and longtime friend Luke a week before experiencing some strange symptoms: momentary paralysis, visual changes, pain in one side of his body, and extremely high blood pressure. He went to the hospital ER where Travis was given an MRI and CT scan among other testing and was told there was nothing wrong, that he was probably just overworked. Over the next couple of weeks his symptoms continued and became more severe and frequent. After several more trips to various hospital ER’s he was eventually admitted to the hospital where he endured many thousands of dollars of tests - MRI’s, CT Scans, and more over several days. After several days he was pronounced medically fit and diagnosed with conversion disorder (aka: anxiety disorder and panic attacks). He was discharged from the hospital and given a prescription for a blood pressure pill and anti-depressant medicine and advised to see a psychiatrist. However, his symptoms continued to become more frequent and severe. When Travis began having severe seizures and hallucinations his parents took him to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY.

 

Travis spent a night in the emergency psychiatric department and was admitted to the medical, neurological, psychiatric unit at Strong. He was extremely agitated, and delirious and had to be restrained. After several terrible days of tests and being in restraints, doctors were convinced that he didn’t have bipolar disorder or schizophrenia and there was no psychiatric explanation for his signs and symptoms. It was determined that he had some form of encephalitis but to determine exactly which one would require a lumbar puncture to test his spinal fluid. Since he was too agitated to undergo the lumbar puncture Travis had to be sedated to the point he wouldn’t be able to breath on his own so he was moved to the Neurological ICU and put in a medically induced coma with a respirator and feeding tube. While they waited for the lumbar test results he was started on extremely high doses of steroids, anti-viral meds and antibiotics to treat all possible forms of encephalitis. After a few days it was determined by local labs that he didn’t have viral or bacterial encephalitis so it was clear that he had a rare autoimmune encephalitis. A few days later lab results from a major research hospital returned positive test results for Anti-NMDA Receptor encephalitis—a rare and likely underdiagnosed autoimmune disease. Unfortunately, his diagnosis is a troubling one, because this type of encephalitis has no accepted treatment. Many victims of this debilitating disease likely die misdiagnosed and untreated. After 6 weeks in a coma undergoing intense treatment in the ICU his vitals improved to the point he was gradually brought out of the coma and weaned off the respirator and feeding tube. After two weeks of physical therapy Travis was released from the hospital and is making the first steps into a long and difficult recovery. Some patients require a year or two to fully recover. He won’t be able to drive for a year after his last seizure and it’s uncertain when he will be able to work again. Travis’ parents - Dan and Charlene, have two goals in mind:

1. To raise money for necessary hospital expenses throughout Travis’s recovery, and

2. To raise awareness of Anti-NMDAr encephalitis in the community to combat misdiagnosis and allow the available treatment options to be implemented sooner when cases do arise.

To learn more about Travis’s condition, visit Falling Through the Looking Glass story. Also, look for another patient’s story on Netflix, called “Brain on Fire”.

Please kindly SHARE WIDELY on your social networks!! All donations to help Travis during his difficult and lengthy recovery are most appreciated!!!