Good News
Mother Woke Up From Seven Months Coma After Doctors Told Family To ‘Pull The Plug’
They did not give up.
Kertisha Brabson was a 31-year-old mother of two gorgeous kids. Back in 2018, everyone was preparing for Halloween in September, but not Brabson nor her mother, Kertease Williams, had the time to. Brabson was driven to a hospital in Alliance, Ohio where she showed unusual behavior and signs of delusions as well as psychosis.
After that, she suffered a seizure and was comatose for the next 7 months. Doctors pronounced that she was ‘brain dead’ and suggested that they pull off the plug because there’s nothing they could do.
After further diagnosis, it was discovered that she suffered from Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis.
Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis is a rare disorder in the immune system where it attacks its own brain cells, causing it to swell. But it can also be caused by tumors, commonly in the ovaries for women.
For seven months, Brabson’s mother kept moving forward by taking her daughter from one hospital to another, meeting one specialist after another. Williams said, “Every decision that I made was because she got two little people that were depending on their mother to come home and that was her kids.”
When she was taken to Ohio State’s Brain and Spinal Hospital, she had up to 20 seizures a day. According to Doctor Shraddha Mainali, a stroke and neurocritical care specialist, patients with this condition have a 60% mortality rate.
After she spent four months in Ohio State, she finally opened her eyes. She recalled, “[The nurse] was like ”yeah, Ms. Brabson, you’ve been asleep for seven months”. I was like ”do my mom know?”” The team worked aggressively to cure her and made sure her treatments did not damage her.
Brabson could not recall a single thing from her comatose condition and still thought it was still September 2018.
Williams was also excited when she heard the news, “He [a doctor] said well, she wakes up. Oh, my goodness, we just jumped up and down and screamed and nobody slept that morning.” Both of them are thankful for Ohio State Wexner Medical Centers’ hard work.
