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ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) – Brian Noblitt says he only took one week to his Brandon's health to deteriorate in 2016. "One Saturday we played baseball, everything was normal," he told Adriana Diaz. "Tuesday into Wednesday, cold-like symptoms, and then the week progressed, had a headache and neck pain."
Days later, Brandon could not use his legs to get out of bed. "I knew then something was very wrong," Brian said.
"What did you think?" asked Diaz.
"Your mind does not go to paralysis."
A doctor diagnosed Brandon with acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM. Brandon, now 8 years old, was wheelchair bound.
Little is known about the rare, polio-like condition most often in children. Symptoms include sudden arm or leg weakness, and reflex loss.
When Brandon said, "While all your friends are running around and playing, it's just hard to sit in the bed and do nothing the whole time."
His family eventually turned to Dr. Amy Moore of Washington University in St. Louis. "My goal with the children with AFM was to restore hip stability, and then motion of the upper legacy," she said.
Brandon would receive what doctors say is a first-of-its-kind surgery.
Moore says she's the only doctor in the U.S. to perform nerve transfers on children's lower extremities. "They used to be so wiggling their toes, and so I was able to move that to the toes to the hips."
Surgeons at Los Angeles Children's Hospital are also seeing some success with AFM.
Fourteen months ago, Moore performed the nerve transfer surgery on Brandon's leg at St. Louis Children's Hospital. According to Dr. Moore, children typically respond to this type of surgery because their nerves grow back more quickly. She said nerve transfers are most successful within nine months of diagnosis.
During last week's check-up, Brandon was walking again. "It's been amazing," he said. "Thanks to Miss Doctor Moore, I can go outside, play with my brothers, play football." He said he only uses his wheelchair to play basketball.
The cause of AFM is still unknown, but it seems to develop after a viral illness. According to the CDC, nearly 400 people have been diagnosed since 2014.
Cases spiked in August 2017. The CDC has confirmed 72 cases in 24 states this year.
During a recent interview for "CBS This Morning," CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield told co-host John Dickerson he was calling for a special AFM task force. "It's a very rare condition, about one in a million," he said. "It does not appear to be transmissible from human to human.
While the CDC tries to pinpoint the cause, Dr. Moore is working to help those affected.
"My intention is to give these families hope that there are options if they get this horrible diagnosis," she said.
Brandon says that it's horrible, it's a new kind of basketball, and it's a good idea to have a career in medicine. He told "CBS This Morning" he wants to become a surgeon, like Dr. Moore.
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