Rare Disease Put This Young Mom in a Coma for 7 Months

Apparently, a tumor in one of her ovaries had caused Brabson to develop anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, Mainali said.

“In her case, she had a tumor in her ovary that possibly had cells resembling brain cells,” Mainali said. “In the body’s attempt to attack that tumor, it started hurting brain cells.”

Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis is a recently discovered disease, identified in 2007 by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania.

NMDA receptors are proteins in the brain that control the electrical impulses that form the basis of human thought. Any time you make a decision, observe something, interact with another person, or recall a memory, you’re relying on these receptors to make the necessary connections. Even automatic functions like breathing rely on these receptors.

Two-pronged treatment

The affected ovary was removed, but Brabson’s condition didn’t improve.

Eventually, Williams moved her daughter to Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, where doctors started a two-pronged approach to treatment.

Brabson’s brain imaging showed no signs of severe injury, Mainali said, so the doctors figured that if they treated her disease she should have a good chance of waking up and recuperating.

Brabson was put on intense immune suppression to stop her body from attacking her brain, Mainali said. They also put her on a cocktail of seizure medications at very high doses.

She arrived at Wexner in December, and around February she was seizure-free, Mainali said.

“Once we were confident the seizures were taken care of, we gradually started to lift one medication at a time,” Mainali said.

Brabson woke from her coma in April, gently eased back into the world by the steady withdrawal of her medications.

“I didn’t really know anything,” Brabson recalled. “When I woke up, I was confused. I didn’t know where I was at. I didn’t know what was going on.”

At first, she didn’t recognize her family, Williams said.

“She didn’t know who I was. I said, ‘I’m your mother.’ She said, ‘No, I’ve never seen you before,'” Williams recalled. “We left the room. When we came back an hour later, she said, ‘Hi Mom!'”