From one rugby-crazed teen to another, always “get back up”.
That is the message from 13-year-old Kaleb Gameson to the Kāpiti College student of the 10th year Conor Farrow who recently emerged from an artificial coma in the ICU at Wellington Hospital while battling a rare autoimmune disease.
Caleb may be two years younger than him and lives on the South Island, but he knows all too well what Conor Farrow has been through and the long journey he still has to make on his road to recovery.
When 9 years old, the Oamaru teen was also diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) four years ago.
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Kaleb Gameson, now 13, from Oamaru, is back to his “rugby-crazy” self four years after recovering from a rare autoimmune disease.
Pronounced gee-yan bah-ray, GBS is a neurological disorder in which the immune system attacks and damages the body’s nervous system, leading to paralysis. It is considered rare – even more so in young people – with about 120 new cases a year in New Zealand.
Caleb’s mother, Lynda Masters, remembered that he’d had the flu about a week earlier. “Then he started complaining about pins and needles in his hands and feet,” she said.
They realized something more serious was going on when he started falling at school.
She took him to Oamaru Hospital and was sent home with some medicine and told her to come back if things got worse. A battery of tests, including a lumbar puncture, failed to provide a diagnosis and she became increasingly concerned.
Finally, a British doctor who specialized in the rare condition gave the GBS diagnosis before moving to New Zealand and Kaleb was admitted to Timaru Hospital in September 2018.
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Then: At age 9, Kaleb Gameson spent a week in Timaru Hospital after being diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome. It was another eight months before he was back to normal.
“By that stage he had lost all feeling in his legs and was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. He was quite shocked.”
Kaleb was given two courses of intravenous infusion of immunoglobulin — a process by which beneficial antibodies are added to a person’s blood.
He only spent a week in the hospital, but it would be several months before he would be his old ‘rugby-crazy’ self again. Caleb returned home in a wheelchair and switched to crutches before having to learn to walk again.
“It took us eight months to get our normal Caleb back,” Masters said.
Until Caleb’s diagnosis, the family had never heard of GBS or met anyone who had suffered from it. Conor was the first teenager they’d heard of who shared the disorder.
Thanks to the specialist’s experience in making the diagnosis so quickly, Masters counts himself among the lucky ones, with Kaleb starting treatment just 4-5 days after the first symptoms.
Her message to the Farrow family: “It will get better, but it will be a long way.”
Today, Caleb is an excited teenage boy who eats his mother away from home and at home and looks forward to attending high school next year.
The junior flanker of Excelsior Rugby Club said the recovery was the most difficult, especially as he missed an entire season of rugby. However, he still showed up for games and practice, crediting the team’s support for helping him get through.
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Conor Farrow, 14, has returned home after recently coming out of an artificial coma in the ICU at Wellington Hospital. (File photo)
Back in Wellington, Conor is back home after being discharged this week after nearly a month at Wellington Regional Hospital.
Mother Rebecca Farrow said it was good to be home, especially since the family of four had split time between Wellington and their home in Waikanae.
Although he “did very well”, there was still a long way to go. It was about “small steps” and taking it day by day.
Conor has lost 17 pounds and is currently in a wheelchair. He sees a physiotherapist five times a week and has weekly checkups in the hospital.
Farrow reiterated her thanks to the hospital staff and anyone who offered support. “Everyone was so amazing,” she said, adding that it had been quite overwhelming. “Although the experience itself was very tough, we felt we were in such good hands.”