FAINTING WITH LOSS OF SIGHT, HEARING AND USE OF LEGS... IN AN ADOLECENT

BRUCE · Guest

My daughter is 17 years old (lives in Southern Spain) began to have fainting spells around 6 months ago after she had been sick with a cold / flu. She came to eat lunch at the table and didn't feel like eating, and while chewing food in her mouth, slumped her head forward momentarily, then collapsed with her head on the table. We took several minutes to revive her. She did not remember what happened. We found out from her after that she had several fainting spells already, either alone in her room, and even at school, but had never told us. Since then she has had more and more incidents with increasing frequency. At school she reported first losing her muscle tone, she would drop her pen, her head would slump forward, then her friend would take her into the hall and have her lie on a bench until she recovered. She might or might not go completely unconscious. At home her symptoms are not always alike, but often it has happened at mealtime, gradually becoming unable to hold up her head, it slumps forward and she eventually faints. Or, she recovers after a few minutes and doesn't faint. We took her in to our family doctor, who prescribed blood tests, referred her to a neurologist, who then referred her to a cardiologist. While we were waiting for her next appt for cardiology testing, the faints became so repetitive that we took her into emergency. She was quite weak during her stay at the hospital, feeling dizzy almost every time she got up, and fainting 1-3 times every day. They did not treat her with anything, just ran test after test. When they didn't find anything, they suggested that it was anxiety related, and she should see a psychiatrist. She doesn't believe this is the problem herself but a cop out from the doctors.

After she came home she seemed stronger. Happy to get out of the hospital. She seemed to be doing fine and we hoped she was just "getting over it". She went back to school after Easter but on the 3rd or 4th day she collapsed again at school. Since then she has another observable episode every 3 - 5 days. She has tried to control it with her will, and resist a faint when it is coming on. This hasn't been so successful, she can keep from going unconscious, but it takes longer for her to recover, she may go for an hour or more lying down unable to talk or sit up, with just the slightest response to our voice in her expression, enough for us to know that she hears us. Other times, though she doesn't faint, she experiences other symptoms such as loss of sight, loss of hearing, loss of sensation in her legs. One day she was walking, and said she could control her legs, but not feel them. Another day she looked at the table and said she saw it moving in waves.

Some days she says she doesn't feel well, and I'm still not quite sure what this means. Mostly I think it means she feels generally dizzy. The most recent episode, Monday night, she was about to enter her room to go to bed, she felt it coming on, grabbed the doorframe but couldn't resist it, slumped down to the floor and was unable to talk or move. She doesn't know whether she went unconscious or not, since there was no point of reference. She recovered her speech but was otherwise very weak.

I called her a few days ago (I work in China) and spoke with her and she told me "everything had gotten worse and that she was unable to go to school any more". I thought at first she possibly had vertigo but she said that she doesn't have the "illusion of motion and doesn't see things spinning". She said she only had this feeling of the room spinning associated with vertigo a couple of times. On all the rest of the occasions in the last 6 months there was no spinning but more of a dizziness and she said that it "doesn't always happen exactly the same". She said her "head starts to go forward and she may loose her hearing or sight (blurry or completely black) and then eventually she just slumps down" She told me that during this time nothing moves around her so she feels that it does not fit the definition of typical vertigo symptoms. During this time she may go unconscious or just lie there unable to move or speak, or even open her eyes. She says sometimes she can hear others around her. Sometimes it lasts a few minutes but it can last for over an hour at other times. She is always sensitive to things to might make her dizzy though. The other day she went walking with me, and simply the sunlight shinning through a wire fence where she was walking bothered her mother told me.

She has had many tests including CAT, EEG, blood tests and tests on the inner ear which all came up negative. She is extremely intelligent so I also do not buy the suggestion of dementia.
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FAINTING WITH LOSS OF SIGHT, HEARING AND USE OF LEGS... IN AN ADOLECENT

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