Teenager with rare autoimmune disorder treated at Gurgaon hospital

GURGAON: A 17-year-old girl with Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) — a rare autoimmune condition — has successfully been treated at a city hospital.
She was paralysed and was facing difficulties in swallowing and breathing. Unable to move her limbs, the patient was able to communicate only through her eyes. Her respiratory muscles weren’t working properly, for which she was put on a ventilator, according to doctors.
Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) is a rare autoimmune condition that can lead to weakness in the muscles to nearly complete paralysis of a patient, leaving them unable to breathe without support. Although the exact cause of the disease is unknown, according to doctors, a vaccine, fever, or a recent infection can trigger an immune response.
A team of doctors headed by Dr Sankalp Mohan, senior consultant and unit head (neurology) at Paras Health, diagnosed her condition a month ago. “This teenage girl’s case is unique and one of the rare and most challenging cases I have dealt with in my career as a neurologist because this is her third GBS attack. Generally, GBS occurs only once in a lifetime of a patient. In less than 5% of patients, it might re-occur a second time. We decided to start plasmapheresis (a process in which plasma is removed, treated and returned to blood circulation).”
Through plasmapheresis, the harmful antibodies of the patient were removed regularly. She underwent seven cycles of plasmapheresis. Signs of improvement were seen in the patient after around two weeks. After a month of continued treatment, the patient regained her mobility and completely recovered.
“I had given up all hope when the symptoms of GBS came back again. But when Dr Sankalp Mohan and the team at Paras Health started treating me, my condition started to improve. Now, I am walking back home like a normal person, completely cured.”