Mayo Clinic discovers mystery disease destroying lawyer

An autoimmune disease was killing Greg Widseth from the inside.

Greg Widseth, a lawyer from Minnesota, had been suffering from an unknown disease. Neurologists he had visited could not figure out what was happening to him. Fortunately for Widseth, Mayo Clinic has been able to determine the neurological disease wreaking havoc on him. A specialist from the clinic, Dr. Jeffrey Britton, happened to be the neighbor of Widseth's sister-in-law, who his wife called when his condition was getting worse.

span style="line-height: 15.8599996566772px;">MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) -  A neurologist specializing in autoimmune encephalitis, Dr. Britton and his colleague, a neuroimmunologist, Dr. Andrew McKeon both decided to assess the condition of Widseth and discovered he was struck with a rare disease where his immune system was attacking his brain cells - an autoimmune disease

Widseth, 47, had a photographic memory until he began having problems with reconstructing the events that lead him to be hospitalized. Due to the rarity of his case, his wife, a former emergency nurse, sought the help of specialists from the Mayo Clinic, which is considered "one of the world leaders in the diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune neurological diseases," as said in the report by Dan Browning for the Star Tribune.

The lawyer was subjected to some specially developed blood and spinal fluid tests, which had confirmed he has antibodies that are known to attack certain brain cells.
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It was found that he had those antibodies that target the limbic system, one of the most common in the rare case.

Dr. Britton explained there are some cases in which the patients have a short fever before the onset of the disease, where they thought it would be an infection affecting the immune system. These autoimmune diseases at some form can even mimic psychiatric disorders, aside from leading into diseases like epilepsy.

Widseth was able to keep his job; he got treatment and is eternally grateful for receiving the correct diagnosis before more damage happened.

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