DoctorOz: Immune System Attacked Her Brain! Medical Mystery Solved

Today it's Medical Mystery Monday. How does a healthy young woman complaining of headaches suddenly end up like this? Emily's family were at the end of their rope. After many misdiagnoses and failed treatments they didn't know what was going on with their once healthy daughter. In today's Medical Mystery Monday we are investigating a mysterious illness that more and more women are identifying that's affecting the brain. Now we've been following the case of Emily Gavigan who went from a healthy woman to losing the ability to speak in less than a year. It's the biggest nightmare for any parent or doctor not knowing what was attacking Emily's body. So what would you do? What would you do if this happened to your friend or family member, someone dear to you? Well Emily's parents they pushed doctors they pushed hard to figure out what was wrong with their daughter and today this medical mystery has been solved. In fact, Emily is here and we're happy to report she's made a full recovery. Please come on out Emily. You look very different than those videos. Yes, yes. Thank you. So how do you feel? It's been quite a journey. I feel great. I'm healthy. I'm happy. I'm not on any medication. I go to a yearly checkup with my doctor and I'm doing well. That's unbelievable. I saw a video of you when you're at your worst and you spent some time at your worst. When you watch that video what do you feel? It's hard but it's almost like looking at a different person. I've overcome that and it was seven years ago. So it's like it's not me. It's a dream. So Emily's parents Bill and Grace they're actually here. You solved the mystery. If you don't mind come up and join us. Come on up. Let's make a little room for your parents. Come on over here Gracie. You did the real detective work. Thank you sir. Have a seat. And it was very emotional for me as a dad especially watching you talk about taking her home to love her. And when you get that kind of advice from a doctor it means we're sort of throwing our hands up because we're as frustrated as you are but it's your daughter. So a year into this nightmare you're told that Emily's chances are nil that you buy what you think is her deathbed and by chance by chance you see something. Can you tell us that story? Yes well at this point Emily had gotten to to the point where she was as you said you know maybe coming towards the end and but about two months earlier Susanna Cahalan who was a writer for the New York Post made an appearance on the Today Show and the story that Susanna told about this mysterious illness that she had gone through sounded very similar to what Emily had been going through. And we presented that to Emily's psychiatrist and unfortunately he actually told us that he thought we were my wife and I were in denial about the fact that our daughter had a mental illness. In denial? In denial. So we were... Before you leave that point that's pretty frustrating, angering even. It was. It was at the time it was very frustrating very very angering but we accepted it at that point. But when two months later when Emily, the physical symptoms came and Emily became critically ill. She had a blood clot in her brain. I remembered the article that Susanna had written in the New York Post and I brought it to the hospital and I presented it to the doctor a neurologist this time who admittedly was at the end of his rope as far as answers as to what was going on with Emily. And he took it seriously he read it. He then approached the University of Pennsylvania hospital the doctors there that had discovered this disease and made arrangements for Emily to be life flighted to the University of Pennsylvania. That's my alma mater. I'm proud of them. They did a great job with her. That is unbelievable. So they get her to the hospital. They check her spinal fluid. They find out that she has the marker for this. Can I just explain to everyone what's going down here? You all have heard of autoimmune diseases right? Like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis. Imagine if you had a autoimmune problem but it was attacking your brain instead of your joints. I've never heard this before. Which is why it's a mystery illness. But it exists. Attacking your brain cells. And people present with fevers and headaches and sometimes they get confusions and convulsions. That's ultimately what has you going into this rabbit hole of paranoia, hallucinations and memory problems. Which seems psychiatric. But we're more and more realizing that what we think is obsessive compulsive disorder or paranoia is actually a reflection of a problem that's in your body. It is a medical problem. As much as it is a problem with the way you're thinking about the world. And I have to say, as more people report and talk about this, more and more women are diagnosing it in themselves. Often bringing the evidence to the doctor. If I have to take one bit of pride about your story, there is a value when big media platforms, we focus on this on our show, talk about ailments that aren't that common. Because you guys pick up on it and you tell your doctors, you make all the medical system work better. And your story will save not just lives of people who have your problem but other rare illnesses because it prompts us to look further. Instead of being at the end of our rope as you say. By the way there's more information about all this on the Alliance Raising Awareness. I'll put the website at the bottom here and we'll put it up on DrRoz.com as well. So Grace you were there for the rehab. You got a diagnosis but you got to treat her still. So walk me through the treatment and the recovery from this. Well the treatment is actually the same that they would do for a cancer patient. She was given three rounds of chemotherapy, two weeks apart to suppress her immune system so she stops attacking her brain. She went through the chemotherapy fairly well. There's side effects. They have to administer steroids. So she had also get Benadryl along with it. These are relatively small problems compared to what you were dealing with. Then you're here. So what do you remember about this whole ordeal? I don't remember the parts where I was most critical. Like I was on a ventilator for a few days and when I had seizures. But I remember a great deal of it. And it was really frustrating. A lot of the, like I knew that I couldn't use my hands but I didn't know why and I was stubborn about things. Like I wanted to walk but I couldn't walk. Like I would try to take my fall risk bracelet off like at least once a week at the hospital. Stick it in my drawer. Yeah. That's being a teenager. So did you ever think you'd be sitting here walking in front of an audience at full speed? No. Absolutely not. Did you? At one point, no. For sure. How'd you keep the hope going? Well, it just didn't seem to make sense. It just, from the beginning how rapidly she changed and it just didn't seem to make sense that it was entirely a psychiatric illness. And we were lucky. As you said, it was the power of the media. It was the Today Show. It was Susanna Cahalan. It was her going on the Today Show, writing that article. And now the HLN show. Emily's been getting a lot of people contacting her now since that and the awareness is spreading even more. You've given a lot of hope to people who don't understand what's going on and they know they feel in their heart that it's not what they're being told. So good luck to you. Congratulations. I'm so happy for you, for your recovery. You can catch more of Emily's story, plus other medical mysteries on HLN's new docuseries, Something's Killing Me. It's airing this Saturday. I'll be right back.