Document text
http://www.omniture.com --> Email Story to a Friend June 25, 2006 Jamie Pulliam Rare disease attacks girl's brain By JOHN DARLING for the Mail Tribune A 7-year-old Eagle Point girl is struggling to recover from a rare, life-threatening disease that allowed influenza to attack her brain. Acute demyelinating encephalomyelitis has left Jamie Pulliam partially crippled and facing months of therapy to relearn basic skills such as eating, walking and dressing herself, say her parents, Kenneth and Elizbeth Pulliam, both 35. "She will never be normal, as I knew her," Kenneth Pulliam said. "The brain short-circuited when it was attacked by the Influenza-B. It was very unexpected. I didn't know something like this could be so bad." The disease, known as ADEM, eats away at the myelin sheath, the fatty covering around nerves that acts as an insulator, causing inflammation of the brain and spinal cord. It strikes mostly children and young adults. Jamie came down with ADEM June 4 while visiting in Roseburg with her family. She was vomiting, disoriented and running a fever when her parents took her to the hospital in Roseburg, they said. She was given a urine test and had her temperature taken, then was released with two Tylenol, Kenneth Pulliam said. By the next day at her home in Eagle Point, Jamie was breathing poorly and could not be awakened. The Pulliams rushed her to Rogue Valley Medical Center, where a blood test, spinal tap and MRI scan led to the ADEM diagnosis. Still unconscious, Jamie was flown to Emmanuel Children's Hospital in Portland, where she was put on steroids to fight the allergic reaction, said the physician attending her at Emmanuel, Dr. Janice Cockrell. Jamie spent 10 days in intensive care, her parents said. Jamie is now "doing well, making progress and, usually, ADEM patients make full recovery," Cockrell said. Therapy at Emmanuel will continue for at least six weeks, with total costs running into the low six figures, she added. The Pulliam family is insured through Rogue Valley Transportation District, where Kenneth Pulliam drives a bus, but the family still will be responsible for an estimated 20 percent of care, which could go on for three or four years, he said. The family is staying in the Ronald MacDonald House, near the hospital, for $20 a night and has set up an account for donations, payable at any Wells Fargo Bank branch. Jamie is currently paralyzed on the left side of her face and has to relearn how to swallow, breathe, eat and do other normally involuntary functions controlled by the part of the brain that the flu attacked, said Kenneth Pulliam. Jamie is undergoing physical, speech, occupational and art therapy, said Elizbeth Pulliam. She said late last week that Jamie was "pretty good today, pretty tired, but is up walking with a walker and did about 25 steps today." "I'm taking it day by day," Elizbeth Pulliam said. "It's tough. I'm trying to stay strong for her. My main focus is to be there for my daughter." Kenneth Pulliam is back in the Rogue Valley working and taking care of the couple's other children, Kurtis, 16, Shelby, 8, and Brennan, 2. John Darling is a freelance writer in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected]. Advertisement s Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Discount Hotel Reservations --> online casinos news Ashley Furniture HomeStore Send Flowers California Casinos GMAT Prep Windermere Van Vleet Sports Equipment Entertainment Guide --> Online Casino Fundraisers Sudoku Online Casinos Canada Online Casino Reviews