Terrifying brain disorder sufferers who are unable to ‘talk or write the letter Q’ living in fear as docs probe illness
A MYSTERIOUS brain disorder has left terrified victims unable to “talk, walk, or write the letter Q” as doctors probe the illness. For more than two years, the disease has plagued people in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, instilling an array of neurological symptoms. Symptoms listed by health officials include memory problems, muscle spasms, […]
A MYSTERIOUS brain disorder has left terrified victims unable to “talk, walk, or write the letter Q” as doctors probe the illness.
For more than two years, the disease has plagued people in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, instilling an array of neurological symptoms.
Symptoms listed by health officials include memory problems, muscle spasms, balance issues, difficulty walking or falls, hallucinations, unexplained weight loss, and pain in the limbs.
Doctors have still puzzled by the disease and are no closer to discovering the cause.
Medical officials are baffled as to why an influx of young people is being affected by the disease.
Victims and their families described their terrifying tales of the disease and how their bodies and minds slowly crumbled.
In 2019, Gabrielle Cormier, 20, an aspiring medical student, began experiencing muscle pain, difficulty concentrating and vision problems.
Her family initially suspected it was fatigue from sports; however, soon, the 20-year-old could not keep her balance.
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Cormier can now walk only with a cane, has trouble speaking, and cannot focus enough to attend university classes.
“It breaks our heart. Young people should be out living and enjoying themselves. Instead, they’re dealing with these health issues that we can’t explain,” Cormier’s stepmother, Stacie Quigley Cormier, told The Guardian.
“Politics is slowing everything down. And what people don’t have is time.”
The illness is similar to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a rare and fatal brain disease, one form of which is known as “Mad Cow Disease”.
A whistleblower has said the condition is alarming doctors, two years after it was first discovered in the spring of 2019.
“I’m truly concerned about these cases because they seem to evolve so fast. I’m worried for them, and we owe them some kind of explanation,” the source told The Guardian.
The government called it a “cluster of a neurological syndrome of unknown cause” and first identified 48 suspected cases last spring.
However, medical sources told the outlet the figure is closer to 150, with many of those afflicted in their 20s and 30s.
‘ALL I CAN DO IS WRITE’
Johanne Boucher was one of the original 48 victims, explaining how she lost her ability to speak in late 2021.
“I was shocked. I can’t even order a coffee. All I can do is write. After nearly four years, I’ve seen two neurologists … and had countless tests. I don’t know what I have. The disease remains unknown,” she told the Guardian on Facebook Messenger.
In the summer of 2020, Terriline Porelle, 33, felt a sharp pain like an “electric shock” in her leg.
Porelle, an avid hiker, found that the sensation moved throughout her body in the following days, reaching her arms and face, and like Cormier, her vision worsened.
An optometrist told her the muscles in her eyes acted similarly to those of patients in their 70s and 80s.
After forgetting how to write the letter Q, she saw her family doctor, but to no avail. A neurologist ruled out other possible conditions, and her brain scan was clean.
“I was relieved it wasn’t a tumor or something. But we still didn’t know what it was. I try not to obsess over it,” said Porelle, who has trouble moving around her house.
“I have sleepless nights where I wonder how this happened. What’s going on with me?”
‘AM I GOING TO LIVE THAT LONG?’
Porelle, who lives in a rural community, says her mental health has continued to deteriorate.
The 33-year-old says she finds it hard to complete daily tasks without the help of her partner.
“I don’t know what to do. I try to keep positive, but it’s hard. There are days when I don’t know if I should even bother saving for retirement. Am I even going to live that long?”
Experts said the disease could be linked to environmental triggers, with beta-Methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), particularly of interest.
BMAA is a toxin centered in marine and freshwater environments and has been linked to diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
A report published in October said that a survey of 34 people with the disease had found “no specific behaviors, or food or environmental exposure” causing it.
The mystery disease strikes people of both genders and all ages, with the average age of patients being 59 but as young as 18.
Alier Marrero, a neurologist in New Brunswick who has treated most of the patients, has previously said he had detected “unusually young patients” who had shown symptoms as early as 2013.
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