{"id":244077,"date":"2019-06-12T22:27:14","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T22:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/girl-seven-paralyzed-by-mysterious-polio-like-illness-can-finally-walk-one-year-later\/"},"modified":"2019-06-12T22:27:14","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T22:27:14","slug":"girl-seven-paralyzed-by-mysterious-polio-like-illness-can-finally-walk-one-year-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/girl-seven-paralyzed-by-mysterious-polio-like-illness-can-finally-walk-one-year-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Girl, seven, paralyzed by mysterious ‘polio-like illness’ can finally walk one year later"},"content":{"rendered":"

A seven-year-old girl is finally walking again nearly one year after she was\u00a0paralyzed by a rare polio-like illness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year, over Labor Day weekend, Olivia Hanson, then six, came down with a sore throat and a fever.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But soon after going to the ER, she developed muscle weakness, and eventually was left completely paralyzed, reported Fox 17<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

After running numerous tests, doctors in Grand Rapids, Michigan, diagnosed her with acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), an infection that causes sudden paralysis.<\/p>\n

Olivia was on a ventilator, bed-ridden and fighting for her life, and doctors told her mother that they weren’t sure if she would ever walk again.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the elementary-schooler is back to walking and running and – despite some physical limitations – her parents say they feel like Olivia is her old self once again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, the disease struck more than 200 children across 40 US states. Some children made full recoveries, while others still remain partially paralyzed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Olivia \"Olivia <\/p>\n

Olivia Hanson, seven, from Grands Rapids, Michigan, came down with a sore throat and high fever in September 2018. Pictured: Hanson, right, with her brother<\/p>\n

\"Within \"Within \"The \"The <\/p>\n

Within one week, Olivia (left and right) was left paralyzed and doctors diagnosed her with acute flaccid myelitis.\u00a0The rare disease affects the nervous system and most resembles the polio virus<\/p>\n

‘Maybe she has changed with her physical limitations and can’t do things, [but] her spirit, her heart, is back,’ her mother, Alecia, told Fox 17. ‘I have my little girl.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

In September 2018, Olivia was spending Labor Day weekend playing with her friends outside, having water balloon fights and swimming in the pool.<\/p>\n

But on Sunday, she developed a high fever. When the fever wouldn’t break, Alecia took her to the emergency room at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.<\/p>\n

Olivia was admitted to the hospital and, about 48 hours later, her condition rapidly declined.<\/p>\n

‘I knew something was really wrong. They [called] awareness code on her and she was in respiratory failure,’ Alecia told Fox 17.<\/p>\n

‘You just see your child laying there and you can’t hug them, and you think: “When is the last time?” [And you’re] trying to remember those moments and all the daily stuff you take for granted.’<\/p>\n