On Valentine’s Day in 2020, 14-year-old Charlie was playing basketball with his friends when he suddenly felt tingling in his hands and fingers. He tried to call his parents, but his hands went numb, and he dropped his phone. “At that point I was completely paralyzed,” recalled Charlie.
Charlie was rushed to a local hospital and then transferred to Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital in Westchester County where he was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, a rare neurological disorder in which the spinal cord becomes inflamed, causing pain, muscle weakness, paralysis, and more. According to the National Organization of Rare Diseases, there are between one and eight new cases per million each year.
