Dancer’s miraculous recovery
Dance teacher Careen van der Walt-Muller was diagnosed with Guillian-Barré Syndrome (GBS) in 2001 and miraculously recovered.
The GBS is a disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system.
The only medical problem she had since she can remember is asthma.
Not the asthma, nor the GBS could stop Careen from teaching.
As a devoted Christian, during a praise and worship ceremony on September 11, 2001, they were informed about the World Trade Centre twin towers disaster in America.
Since then she has suffered from insomnia and experienced chronic pain all over her body.
She is a qualified ballet, modern, tap, Spanish, Latin Imperial Classic style and contemporary dance teacher, but despite her condition she still continued teaching.
“During this time I also wrote books and my dance school’s own syllabus,” she says.
Being in and out of hospital every winter, with either pneumonia or heart failure, she wasn’t surprised when she suffered another asthma attack in 2008.
Careen says she had an ‘out of body’ experience during the attack and remembers she could breathe in or out but was unconscious.
During this experience, she felt at peace and warm.
The feeling was as if she was leaving her body.
She remembers calling her daughter and mother’s name at the time and felt how she returned to her body, still unconscious.
“Although I didn’t know what was going on around me, I clearly remember everything the doctors and my husband did,” she says.
The first symptoms of the GBS disorder include varying degrees of weakness or tingling sensations in the legs.
Careen claims the symptoms can increase in intensity until certain muscles cannot be used at all and, when severe, the person is almost paralysed.
This is exactly what happened to this old Hugenote Meisies Skool learner, she was almost paralysed.
She dragged her legs while walking and yet did not stop teaching until May 2011.
The decease started taking its toll and she felt she couldn’t take it anymore.
Being severely traumatised she lost her communication skills, had to stop teaching and was bedridden.
It was during this time that she read about a specific treatment in a magazine and decided to go for it.
After only nine days of receiving treatment, she was miraculously healed in December 2011.
“I had to learn how to communicate again,” she adds.
It was not an easy path for Careen, but she has started giving dance lessons again and although she only has six students, she is looking at a brighter future.
Information
Most individuals, however, recover from even the most severe cases of Guillain-Barré Syndrome, although some continue to have a certain degree of weakness.
