For Six Months, Her Sister Forgot Who She Was, And It Turns Out She Had Encephalitis
Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain that is caused by a virus, infection, or autoimmune conditions.
It is relatively rare, but severe cases can be life-threatening and result in permanent brain damage. TikToker Deja (@dbootox) is discussing how her little sister forgot who she was for six months, and it turned out she had encephalitis.
In 2019, her little sister, Ria, went on an overnight school field trip. At the time, Ria was 15-years-old. While on the field trip, Ria told everyone there was a gas leak and that they needed to evacuate immediately.
Her teacher ignored her concerns. Then, Ria went over to sit on a bench and started squeezing a tube of sunscreen all over her face. Her teacher decided to take Ria to the emergency room.
The medics claimed she was dehydrated and instructed the teacher to send her home. On her way home, Ria called Deja and told her she had been talking to their dad all day.
However, their dad died in 2015. Later that night, after Ria had arrived home, their mom was woken up by the sounds of Ria pulling everything out of the hall closet.
She was trying to get to the back of the closet. When their mom asked her what she was looking for, she said she was looking for Ria.
The next morning, Ria had a dentist appointment, and she urinated in her chair. Their mom took her to the emergency room.
By the time they arrived, Ria had completely forgotten who she was. She kept repeating that someone needed to let Ria out of her room because she was stuck in there.
Monkey Business – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
After hearing about this, Deja and her husband drove down to see Ria. When they arrived, Ria was crying because she was convinced they had died in a car accident. The only people she was able to communicate with were Deja, her husband, and their other sister.
The medics decided to send Ria to a mental facility two hours away. They determined that she was having a schizophrenic episode.
At that point, the entire family was in a panic. Deja’s husband did some research and found that something similar had happened to another 15-year-old girl, and it turned out that she had encephalitis.
The most common way for encephalitis to be diagnosed is through a spinal tap. The doctors refused to do it because the condition was extremely rare, and the procedure was invasive. After a lot of pleading and begging from the family, the doctors finally agreed to do it.
The next day, the spinal tap results came back negative. They did some more research and discovered that when asked to draw a clock, people with encephalitis would only write the numbers on one half of the clock.
Ria drew the “encephalitis clock.” At last, the doctors started to take the case more seriously. They declared that the swelling in Ria’s brain had caused her to experience delusions and forget who she was.
Ria is now in college and does not have any long-term damage from the encephalitis. It took her about six months to return to normal after her diagnosis.
Deja notes that it is incredibly important to advocate for your own health and to know who you can count on to speak up for you if you’re unable to do so yourself. She hopes her videos can help raise awareness of this serious brain infection.
@dejabootox Where is Ria. #scary #storytime #makeupstorytime #storytelling #mystery
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