LARGO, Fla. -- Largo Medical Center Nurse Desmon Silva, 23, is recovering at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Massachusetts, four months after the impacts of COVID-19 left him paralyzed and on a ventilator.

"They called it kind of like 'the perfect storm'. We were devastated," said Silva's mother, Barbara Bonnet.

At first, it looked like Silva was going to be one of the lucky ones. Bonnet said he was 22 years old when he tested positive back in March.

"He was not symptomatic before or after, and about two and a half months later, July 16, I received a call that my son was at Mease Countryside Hospital in the ICU," said Bonnet, also a nurse. 

Bonnet said what started out as head and neck pain quickly turned into Silva being unresponsive, paralyzed, and on a ventilator. She said he was recently diagnosed with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, or ADEM, a rare disease of the central nervous system.

"As of today, what basically caused it was COVID," Bonnet said.

USF Health Chair of Neurology Dr. Clifton Gooch is not connected to Silva's case but said autoimmune attacks on the central nervous system sometimes occur following viral infections.

"What can happen in some individuals for reasons we don't entirely understand is that the immune system can go into overdrive within a month or two after the infection is cleared and begin to attack the body's own tissues," Gooch said.

The spinal cord, brain, and peripheral nerves can all be targets of these attacks. Gooch said ADEM most commonly follows upper respiratory conditions and can be very serious.

"Some patients will recover completely, depending upon the severity of this, over a period of time. If it's more severe, they may be left with some residual damage," Gooch said.

According to Gooch, ADEM and other CNS conditions, like transverse myelitis and guillan-barre syndrome, are beginning to emerge in case reports in medical literature as illnesses that follow COVID-19 infections.

"Not that common, thankfully, but there's so many COVID cases that we are beginning to see it happening," Gooch said. "It's too early to tell, because COVID's only been with us for less than a year, whether this is going to be more common with COVID than, say, influenza."

Silva was transferred to Spaulding after being flown to Massachusetts General Hospital this summer. He's still paralyzed and on a ventilator. Bonnet said the family is fighting insurer United Healthcare to keep him there until they can be properly trained to care for him. UHC Communications Director Maria Gordon Shydlo said via e-mail that Silva will remain at the rehab facility through early December. Bonnet said that's not enough time for the family members who will take care of Silva to train for the level of care he'll need. 

"For the last three months, we've been trying to stabilize him medically. He's been fighting different infections -- pneumonia, MRSA, you name it. He's really gone through it," Bonnet said. "They are considering Desmon a custodial patient, defining that what they're doing at Spaulding, we're able to do at home."

She said Silva is currently fighting an infection for which he's receiving IV antibiotics, getting plasma treatments, and just started therapy in the center's gym. Bonnet said changes need to be made to the house he'll be staying in and special equipment delivered -- all before the scheduled discharge date of Dec. 8. 

"There's a lot of things that have to take place before Des can come home. We're asking for a proper and safe discharge," Bonnet said.

Through all of this, Bonnet said Silva is staying positive, cracking jokes, and even talking about getting back to nursing one day. She said he also wants to communicate a serious message.

"Desmon is an advocate for us alerting people about COVID. COVID is real. COVID does not discriminate," Bonnet said. "My son was 22, healthy, and he ended up paralyzed and on a ventilator because of COVID."

Bonnet said while he does have sensation throughout his body, only time will tell how much movement he'll recover.

A GoFundMe account has been set up to help with expenses insurance won't cover. You can learn more here.

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