Faith leads family through medical crisis [Dothan Eagle, Ala.]

Oct. 13--It started like any other day for Brian Etheredge.

He got up, left his Rimrock Ridge home in Dothan and headed to his job in Abbeville with the Alabama Department of Human Resources, where he has worked for 18 years - the last 10 spent finding homes for children in need of adoption.

"About the time I got to Headland, I kind of started to feel a little twitch in my back, in the middle of my back up around my shoulder blade area," he said.

He figured he'd slept wrong. The pain worsened after he arrived at work. By lunch, he headed home to lie down. The pain kept getting worse. A trip to the chiropractor for an adjustment didn't help either. So, Etheredge returned home to lie down again. His wife of 23 years, high school sweetheart Lisa, left to go to a meeting at Calvary Baptist Church, where the family attends. Their son Brandon, a junior at Northview High School and a drum major in the band, was at work.

Brian's pain moved around to his chest. He thought he was having a heart attack and drove himself to the emergency room at Flowers Hospital.

That was July 1.

A spinal cord infarction is a rare medical occurrence. It is essentially a stroke that occurs either in the spinal cord or the arteries leading into the spinal cord. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, symptoms can appear within minutes or hours and include sharp and burning back pain, aching pain and weakness down the legs, loss of deep tendon reflexes, a loss of pain and temperature sensation, incontinence and paralysis.

Dr. Jonathan McNeal, a neurosurgeon at the NeuroSpine Center with Southeast Alabama Medical Center, said causes of a spinal cord stroke vary and can include atherosclerosis (hardening) of the arteries leading to the spinal cord, a dissection of the aorta, blood clots, trauma or tumors, or critically low blood pressure.

"A spinal cord stroke or ischemia to the spinal cord is a rare event," McNeal said. "It is caused by decreased blood flow and/or oxygen to the spinal cord itself. It can happen within the spinal cord or it can be a result from pathology of blood vessels that supply the spinal cord."

The prognosis can be extremely poor, but there are exceptions, he said, and recovery really depends on the damage caused to the spinal cord and even how quickly treatment was received. Surgery is not typically helpful once a spinal infarction has caused damage, McNeal said.

Brian Etheredge has always been an active, healthy person who enjoys the outdoors. A 1988 graduate of Daleville High School, he attended Troy State University on a golf scholarship. Brian, Lisa and Brandon would walk or run together at the Westgate Park trail - sometimes three to four times a week.

After Brian arrived at Flowers Hospital, an EKG and a blood enzyme test ruled out a heart attack. Brian's fingers began to go numb. Then, he couldn't move his hands. The numbness and paralysis moved from his hands to his arms and down his legs. Within hours, he was paralyzed from the chest down.

There were numerous medical theories ? neuromyelitis optica, Guillain-Barre syndrome, multiple sclerosis ? and questions about international travel and viral infections. And there were tests - as many as 20 by Lisa's count.

Brian was transferred from Flowers to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Ga.

That was July 2.

Doctors ruled out the different possibilities. Some tests took weeks for results. Brian lay in a hospital bed for 26 days unable to move.

"For weeks they didn't know what it was," Lisa Etheredge said. "We didn't have a diagnosis; they couldn't pinpoint anything. We decided it didn't matter what the diagnosis was. We were going to focus on getting better, and we knew that God would be the one that would get us through to that."

A spinal infarction was ruled the likeliest culprit.

"Even talking to the doctor, it's so rare, she couldn't even explain to me how it happens or why it happens," Brian said.

On July 11, Brian was transferred to the Shepherd Center, an Atlanta hospital that specializes in the treatment of spinal cord and brain injuries. He returned to Dothan on Aug. 27, to give his body time to heal and continue therapy at Southeast Alabama Medical Center.

The injury to Brian's spinal cord begins at the third cervical vertebra and extends to his second thoracic vertebra. The infarction affected the anterior, or front, portion of Brian's spinal cord, so he can still feel sensations and touch. Medically, he's considered a C5 quadriplegic.

Since returning home, he's had some slight movement, or "twitches" as the family calls them, in his toes and right leg. He's getting stronger in his trunk and shoulders -- necessary for Brian to be able to sit up by himself. He's able to move his left wrist, something he couldn't do just a few weeks ago. But he still has no use of his fingers. Long-term recovery is unclear.

Brian will return to the Shepherd Center on Dec. 2, to be evaluated and see if he's ready for the hospital's day program, which is six weeks of aggressive daily therapy.

Family members have helped with Brian during the day so Lisa could return to her job in sales for Blue Cross Blue Shield. Insurance and the state's Vocational Rehab services have helped with some costs, such as a power chair, manual chair, shower chair and a modified van.

Friends and fellow church members have provided support. A Sunday school member from Calvary created a relief fund through Servis 1st Bank, and a local CrossFit gym in Dothan is hosting a fundraiser on Nov. 2. (Brian works with the owner's mother.)

It's been a humbling experience, Brian said. The family has adopted the Bible verse Jeremiah 29:11 as their personal maxim - For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

"We're just going to lean on our faith and that God is going to take care of us and that He has a plan," Lisa said. "And even though we don't know what that plan is we know He has a plan."

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