From The Trussville Tribune staff reports
ORANGE BEACH — A strange disease struck and paralyzed a five-year-old girl from Orange Beach, according to ABC 33/40.
ABC 33/40 reported that Annadelle Faulkner has Accute Flaccid Myelitis, and that her case began in an almost innocuous way.
Acute Flaccid Myelitis, or AFM, is a disease that impacts the nervous system.
“(I) picked her up on a Thursday,” her mother, Neeli Faulkner, said. “(She) had a headache, very slight temp.”
Symptoms grew worse the next day. She developed pains in the back and neck, and chills. Initially doctors believe it was a virus that would have to be allowed to run its course, but according to WBRC, the symptoms continued to worsen.
“She said it was all the way up and down her back,” Neeli said.
By the end of the fifth day, the family had to take Faulkner to the hospital and discovered on their way that that she had become paralyzed from the neck down.
A diagnosis took nearly two months at a Mobile hospital, but eventually it was realized that the child had AFM.
Faulkner is currently being treated at Children’s of Alabama.
According to the CDC, the chances of acquiring AFM are around one-out-of-a-million. There are four known cases of AFM in Alabama.