Macon student graduates from college after overcoming rare disease

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – A young Macon woman overcame a rare and potentially fatal disease. She’s now the first person in her family to graduate from a university.

“I knew i was going to have to go back. There was no stopping me,” Erin Hendrix said.

Graduating from Georgia Southern University is the biggest accomplishment of Erin Hendrix’s life, but it almost didn’t happen.

“That evening I got the call that no parent ever wants to get,” Erin’s mother, Shirley Reid, said.

Reid remembers the day: February 24, 2013. The then 22-year-old old and GSU senior passed out on campus. She was rushed to the hospital.

“I remember being on a stretcher and that’s really it,” Erin said. “The next five months or so, more than that, I don’t remember.”

Erin says she was healthy and she never had a headache in her life.

“I never thought something like this would happen to me,” she said.

Doctors didn’t know what was wrong. Erin was talking in gibberish, having psychotic thoughts and hallucinations.

“She would say, ‘Can you hear the music? Can you tell them to turn the music down,’” Reid recalled. “I was like, ‘What music? I don’t hear music.’”

Eventually doctors figured it out: NMDA Receptor Antibody Encephalitis. Her body was producing antibodies and they were attacking her brain. It is a fairly new condition.

“If we went back about 10, 15 years this diagnosis was not known,” Dr. Jeff Switzer, a neurologist at Georgia Regents University in Augusta said.

Switzer says the hospital sees only a couple of cases of the disease a year and often times it goes misdiagnosed.

“It is very treatable if it is diagnosed, but if not, likely often fatal,” Switzer said. “We’re still learning and gathering more data about how these patients do and how they respond to treatment.”

Erin’s parents were told she may never walk, talk, or eat again on her own.

“They had no clue that I would turn around at all, if I would make it out of the hospital, if I would even live, let alone walk,” Erin said.

But she didn’t give up. In January 2014, almost a year after Erin was hospitalized, she enrolled herself back into GSU.

“I did not want to let that keep me down. If I could think, I was going to read. If I could read, I was going to read how to get myself back into school. If I could talk, I’m going to talk to my adviser about how to get back,” Erin said.

She “Just Did It” and graduated last weekend. She is the first person in her family to get a four-year college degree.

“To see her walk across that stage was awesome,” Reid said. “It took everything in me not to cry.”

Erin’s journey was a long and tough road. She’s hoping her story could help others.

“It can happen to anybody, especially young women,” Erin said. “It has to be acted on quickly. If you misdiagnose it and miss it, it could be the end of your life.”

The 24-year-old is now starting her new journey into the workforce.

“I am 100% and I’m ready to work. Hire me!”

Erin earned her Bachelor of General Studies in Business Administration and Legal Studies with a Marketing minor. She’s currently looking for a job in Human Resources.