A sudden pain: Anderson woman explains how she was paralyzed overnight

Photo by Sefton Ipock

Mary Ann Manley suffers from Guillan Barrett Syndrome and is recovering from being paralyzed from the neck down.

ANDERSON — Tears still form on Mary Ann Manley’s face, and the faces of her husband and daughters, when she talks about an experience she had six months ago. It was the middle of the night, and she needed to get up.

But her body did not respond.

“I was scared to death,” said Manley, an Anderson resident who is 69. “It hits you all of a sudden. You don’t understand what’s going on.”

All she knew was pain. Her entire body ached. And she could not get out of bed.

Once she told her husband, they immediately headed back to Anderson from her sister’s lakefront home in Manning, S.C.

“To see her hurting like that, it tore me up,” Robert Manley said. “All the way from Manning, I had no one to help. We didn’t know what was wrong. The worst part was when I thought I was going to lose her — the most wonderful part of my life.”

After several visits to doctors, she didn’t know if she had inflammation in her back or degenerative disc disorder. Then she went to the AnMed Health Medical Center and learned it was a rare disorder known as Guillain-Barre syndrome.

The Manleys had never heard of Guillain-Barre syndrome. And the first couple of doctors they went to see didn’t catch it either. But one attentive emergency room doctor and neurologist, Dr. James Soriano, solved the mystery for the family.

This is a disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks part of the nervous system. One warning sign for the disorder includes tingling in the legs. Then the paralysis can set in. In Manley’s case, her inability to move happened quickly — without warning.

It is not contagious, it can strike anyone at any age and there is no cure for the syndrome, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the Mayo Clinic.

Mayo Clinic research shows that Guillain-Barre syndrome is rare, affecting only one in about every 100,000 people.

An Anderson neurologist, Dr. Wesley A. Carr, said he has seen several cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome in his 30 years practicing medicine.

“There is a spectrum to Guillain-Barre. It does not always mean full paralysis,” Carr said. “It does not follow the same course in everybody. It can be a very benign thing in some people and a very dangerous thing in the others.”

For some, the warning signs of Guillain-Barre syndrome can be difficulty walking. But not everyone who has trouble walking has the syndrome, Carr added.

The disorder is similar to polio, said Robin Ellison, a physical therapist for 35 years. Ellison and Jill Neal, an occupational therapist, both with Interim Healthcare, have been caring for Manley in her home, helping her recover.

“Guillain-Barre attacks the nerves in the same manner as polio,” Ellisonsaid. “But unlike polio, the nerves can come back.”

From Jan. 7 until Jan. 21, Manley was in the hospital. Then she went to a rehabilitation facility. On Feb. 12, she finally went home. She still couldn’t sit up, feed herself or write her name. Manley’s family and friends built her a wheelchair ramp and renovated their home to make it more accessible to her. Her church family started praying for her. But those close to her didn’t know if she would ever recover.

“There were times when we really didn’t think she would get better,” said her daughter, Fran Manley.

With the help of Neal and Ellison, Mary Ann slowly started regaining her muscle function.

Now she still has some paralysis in her feet, but she can move around with a walker. She can feed herself and write her name. Through it all, the Manleys said, they have learned to laugh and appreciate every moment.

But they want others to know about Guillain-Barre syndrome. They want doctors to know and other families, so if they are hit with such an experience, it won’t be as scary.

“At first, we thought all of this was a bad thing,” Fran said. “But now I don’t know if we would consider it a bad thing. We have been so loved through all of this.”

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