A mosquito bite left me paralysed'

A woman bitten by a mosquito while on holiday in Australia was left paralysed from the neck down.

Natasha Porter was confined to a wheelchair for four months and was unable to move anything below her neck for three weeks after suffering the bite.

Ms Porter was two weeks into the holiday of a lifetime in Australia when she developed Guillain-Barre syndrome - a disease which causes the body attacks its own nervous system.
She first noticed numbness in one toe, but within four days she could barely walk.

Doctors told her the fast-moving paralysis could freeze her diaphragm within hours and that there was a chance she could die. Ms Porter watched helplessly as she lost control of her entire body within hours. She was unable to feel her hands, feet or legs - or move anything below her neck.
‘Every time I went to sleep at night I wondered if I might not wake up,’ said Ms Porter, from Crawley, West Sussex.
‘All I could think was I'm 23 - I don't want to die.’Ms Porter flew to Western Australia in March 2012 and spent seven months working in a cafe to save up for a trip down the country’s east coast. However, she began to notice numbness in her toe two weeks after arriving in Cairns. The paralysis then moved to her hands two days later.

Ms Porter visited a pharmacist who dismissed her symptoms as an allergic reaction and prescribed antihistaminesS.  But when her arms began to feel so heavy she could not lift them up to brush her hair, she consulted a doctor who diagnosed anxiety and stress.

She spent two more days deteriorating on a two-day cruise round the Whitsunday Islands before a concerned couple rushed her to hospital.

Within three weeks she was able to move both her arms a few centimetres, and six weeks after she was paralysed she stood up for a few seconds with the help of three nurses. She had to wear a face mask to protect her from further infections

The condition causes the body to attack its own immune system and it left Ms Porter in a wheelchair for four months and unable to move anything below her neck for three weeks

Doctors tested her reflexes and found she had none.

Ms Porter said: ‘The doctor said he thought it could be Guillain-Barre syndrome. I had never heard of it. The next words he said were “I'm worried," and I was so scared.

‘He said it was potentially fatal because it freezes your diaphragm and he said I might need to go on a ventilator really soon.

‘I remember feeling guilty because I knew I was going to have to call my parents. I was thinking, how do I call them up and say I might be dead in a few hours?

‘I was thinking I just don't want to die, I'm only just beginning to live.’

Guillain-Barre syndrome is a rare and serious condition which occurs when the body's immune system attacks the peripheral nervous system.

The exact cause is unknown but around 60 per cent of sufferers develop it when bacteria or a virus enters the body and triggers the immune system to attack nerves.

This causes the nerves to become inflamed and stop working and in some cases makes the body numb.

It can prove fatal but around 80 per cent of suffers make a full recovery after several weeks in hospital although some take a year or more to fully recover.

Ms Porter’s father Joe, a taxi driver, flew out to join his daughter, and called her mother, Sue, a college lecturer, when it became clear she was very ill.

In November, Ms Porter (pictured with father, Joe) was flown back home accompanied by two nurses

Within two days Ms Porter could not move anything but her head.

She said: ‘I was trying to wiggle my toe and I was staring at it knowing it should move but it wouldn't.

‘I couldn't do anything, it was awful. To go from being so independent to not being able to go to the loo, lift up your own leg. I had to ask to be turned over in bed. It was depressing.

‘There was a constant burning. It was incredible. I can't describe the pain.’

However, thanks to a lot of physiotherapy, Ms Porter was able to regain her independence one movement at a time.

Within three weeks she was able to move both her arms a few centimetres, and six weeks after she was paralysed she stood up for a few seconds with the help of three nurses. 

She said: ‘People were saying, “bend your legs, straighten your back, tuck you tummy in,” but it was so strange as I just had no idea how to do it.

‘The first time I was able to move for five seconds I remember just yelling and everyone started applauding.’

In November, Ms Porter was flown back home accompanied by two nurses, and reunited with brother Jack, 27, and sister Shelley, 25.

By the New Year she was able to take short trips away from her wheelchair and by the end of January she went out dancing with her friends for the first time.