SAN ANTONIO — “I had everything going for me and then within two days it was just taken away," said Angel Anthony Cortez, a Texas State student who was just diagnosed with a rare disorder.
The 23-year-old was intubated for weeks, but is now able to talk about the frightening experience.
His family says the illness could have been deadly. Cortez called in from the intensive care unit at Methodist Hospital to talk about his health scare.
"To put it shortly, it sucks,” he said. “I don’t really remember the first 2 and a half weeks. I was heavily sedated.”
His grandmother Isabel Monroy and mother Cindy Maldonado have seen it all from the start.
"He went from doing everything on his own – driving, working, going to school, to not being able to walk,” Cindy said.
The former Alamo Heights athlete and Texas State student lost feeling in his hands and feet.
On January 9, he was taken to an ICU in San Marcos where he had to use a tube to breathe.
"As the paralysis was ascending he lost control of the muscles that control swallowing,” Cindy said.
Doctors diagnosed him with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the nerves.
He was treated using intravenous immunoglobulin, or IVIG. It helped but didn’t improve his mobility.
Cortez was transferred to San Antonio where doctors performed a plasma exchange. He can now move his body from the waist up.
There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to his recovery. His mother says it could take months or even longer. The family still doesn’t even know how he contracted the illness.
To help offset medical expenses, the family has created a fundraiser.