For a young girl with sudden paralysis, a doctor who listened was the best medicine

October 11, 2024  0  76   

When the babysitter called Vernese Wallace at work, it was the last thing the Tracy mother expected to hear. Vernese’s daughter, D’Zyer (pronounced Desire), then a sixth-grader, had finished her bath but couldn’t get out of the tub. Her legs had stopped working.

“Her legs would not move,” Vernese says. “It was like carrying dead weight.”

Vernese rushed D’Zyer to the hospital, and by the time they arrived, the little girl could once again move her legs – but her feet were tingling. Vernese explained what had happened, hoping for answers. The ER doctor told her that D’Zyer had “growing pains.” He sent the family home and advised Vernese to follow up with her daughter’s physician.

Vernese didn’t waste any time. She called D’Zyer’s pediatrician, Naga Chitta, MD, at the CMC Tracy Central clinic, and soon D’Zyer was in for an evaluation. Dr. Chitta listened closely as Vernese recounted the ordeal, ordered lab tests for D’Zyer and referred her to a neurologist in Sacramento. From there, they learned D’Zyer had transverse myelitis, a rare neurological disorder caused by inflammation of the spinal cord, which required treatment in a hospital.

As it turned out, this was only the beginning of what would become a long journey to recovery and wellness for D’Zyer. She would also be diagnosed with a neurological condition with symptoms like those of multiple sclerosis, and a disabling sleep disorder that causes severe daytime sleepiness and a sudden loss of muscle tone. She suffered headaches, body aches, weakness in her legs, muscle spasms, fatigue.

“I was tired all the time,” D’Zyer says. “I couldn’t focus. I would go to sleep in class. I had no energy and couldn’t be as active as I wanted to be because I would feel drained fast.”

D’Zyer persevered, and fortunately, with the right medication, therapy and behavioral strategies, she began to take control of her life again. Now 17 and a senior in high school, she stays active, works out, and maintains a healthy diet. She has been on the dance team and a cheerleader.

“D’Zyer is super active – she works out tons,” says Vernese. “The only way she can do certain things is by staying active. She recovers on the weekends.”

She is doing so well she no longer needs medication – and she is excited to begin the next chapter of her life.

“She’s doing excellent,” Dr. Chitta says. “I tell her she should write her autobiography so people would know what she went through. I’m so proud of her.”

After graduating this year, D’Zyer is headed for the U.S. Navy; her ultimate goal is to become a doctor. Her inspiration is her dedicated physician at CMC Tracy Central. Also the pediatrician for D’Zyer’s two siblings, 15-year-old Donte and 2-year-old Dream, Dr. Chitta is like family. Vernese and her kids, though they now live in Manteca, don’t mind traveling to see their favorite doctor.

“When everybody else says, ‘No,’ you have one doctor who says, ‘Yes,’ and that’s what inspired D’Zyer,” Vernese says. “She believed my daughter’s symptoms and didn’t brush them off.

“I have so much support from Dr. Chitta. I adore her.”