A survivor of acute flaccid myelitis in full swing

That was in 2014, when Lydia was 6 years old and she had been diagnosed with acute flaccid myelitis, a rare but serious neurological disease similar to polio that affects the brain and the nervous system.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms may include sudden limb weakness, loss of muscle tone and reflexes, loss of face and eyelids, difficulty moving eyes, difficulty swallowing or speech disorders.

"The most serious symptom of AFM is respiratory failure that can occur when the muscles involved in breathing weaken.This may require urgent support of the ventilator (respirator) .In very rare cases It is possible that the process in the body that triggers the AFM can also trigger other serious neurological complications that can lead to death, according to the CDC.

Now at age 10, Lydia has lingering weakness in her arm, but overall, "she's really leading a wonderful life right now," said her mother, Dr. Sarah Pilarowski, a pediatrician in the Denver area.

"Often, I ask," Why me? "But often, I say to myself" at least it was not in my legs or my right hand "because I am right handed, so it would be much worse," Lydia said.

Lydia hopes to be a beacon of hope for a growing number of people in the United States – mostly children – in whom the condition has been diagnosed.

Since August 2014, when the CDC began to monitor the disease more closely, the agency confirmed 362 cases.

Last year, 33 cases were reported in 16 states. One hundred and forty-nine cases were reported in 39 states in 2016 and 22 in 17 states in 2015.

The causes of AFM are multiple, such as viruses, environmental toxins and genetic disorders. The head of Lydia AFM was an enterovirus, a type of common virus that usually increases in summer and fall.

"In the past, polio myelitis was one of the most common causes of flaccid acute myelitis, but fortunately we do not see polio in this country because of our vaccination program. Enterovirus A71 and West Nile virus, Japanese encephalitis virus and, in our opinion, enterovirus D68 are probably also another cause of acute flaccid myelitis, "Dominguez said.

"Depending on the virus that causes it, it often starts – if it is enterovirus D68 – it starts with a respiratory illness and fever, then a few days later, children will have a fever or aches head and neck pain, or pain in the arm or leg, and this will somehow progress to weakness, so they will not be able to move their arms or their leg, "he said.

It was a nice day in August 2014 when Lydia began to cough, showing her her first signs of illness.

Yet her mother did not realize how serious Lydia's disease was before watching her daughter play the piano someday.

"She played very well with the right hand, then it was time for her to play her left hand, but instead of pushing the keys down with her left hand, she had her left hand in position, but she stretched out his right hand and used his right hand to push his fingers with his left hand on the keys, "said Pilarowski.

"I said" Well, Lydia, why are you doing this? "Why do not you use your left hand to push those keys in? And," Well, mom, I can not. I can not play the piano with my left hand. "And it was sort of the first idea that there really was something wrong."

Physiotherapy and occupational therapy are particularly important during recovery. both helped Lydia heal.

"The muscular strength she found right in her affected arm seemed to come back on her own.The therapies really helped some of the surrounding muscles find new ways of doing things, and she Definitely made it. " She discovered new ways of doing things, "said Pilarowski.

"The spectrum is wide, and Lydia is a little softer on the spectrum," she said about the AFM. Overall, she added, "I want to give families hope at this time, because, certainly, when we were in the midst of Lydia's acute illness, we did not know what was going to happen ".