Great Britain rugby sevens Olympian Abi Burton says she spent 25 days in a coma and was wrongly sectioned for 26 days with an immune disorder.
The 22-year-old, who competed in Tokyo, spent a total of 75 days in hospital and lost over three stone in weight.
Burton has also had to learn to walk and talk again, suffered seizures and her behaviour became violent.
“I was horrendously aggressive – I even broke some of the bannisters on the stairs,” she told the Daily Telegraph.
Autoimmune encephalitis occurs when the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the brain and can be wrongly confused with mental illness.
“My antibodies were attacking my brain because they thought my brain was in trouble, but my brain wasn’t in trouble,” Burton added.
“Then the antibodies in my brain were attacking them back, which basically made my brain swell and caused everything, all the behaviour. They (the medical professionals) came to the conclusion that I was having a psychotic breakdown.
“They said to my mum and dad, ‘You either take her to Fieldhead, which is a psychiatric hospital, or we will take her’. My mum and dad didn’t know what to do. I was so poorly. They could see me only for an hour a day – some days they weren’t allowed to see me at all.”
Burton’s condition, which began in May last year, did not improve until a member of staff brought forward the disease as a possible cause, two-and-a-half weeks after she was admitted to the hospital in Wakefield.
When she was diagnosed, Burton was moved to a different hospital and her family made the difficult decision to have their daughter placed in a coma so she could receive plasma exchanges. They were also told she could suffer brain damage.
“When I was in the coma, I had pneumonia twice,” says Leeds-born Burton, who has no memory of her time from May to August 2022. “It was horrible for my family not knowing how I would be when I woke up.”
‘The road to recovery’
Having missed both the Commonwealth Games and Sevens World Cup, the England international says she is keen to return to rugby as soon as possible and targeting the Paris Olympics in 2024.
“I am still on the road to recovery, with the aim to play international rugby again this year,” she said on Instagram.
“My misdiagnosis is something I never want to happen to anyone ever again. I just can’t wait until we get the opportunity at the next Olympics – especially after all this.
“My first home Commonwealth Games was taken away from me, my first World Cup taken away from me. Long term, I want us to go and win gold in Paris.”
