Jackson Employee Suffering from Rare Autoimmune Disease Makes Remarkable Recovery with Help from Rehabilitation Therapy at Jackson North

By: Krysten Brenlla

For nearly 20 years, Roma Baczyk worked as the environmental health and safety coordinator at Jackson North Medical Center.

The 65-year-old kept a relatively healthy lifestyle until one day when a case of sinusitis led to paralysis.

“The weekend of March 8, 2024, I went to the urgent care where they prescribed me some antibiotics and a nose spray for sinusitis. The weekend after, I woke up with my fingers numb,” Baczyk said. “I called my sister and told her she had to take me to the hospital, because I knew something was not right.”

By the time her sister arrived, both of Baczyk’s hands were numb, including her wrists. Her toes also began to tingle, and her speech was impaired.

She was rushed to a nearby hospital, where the emergency team ran several tests to rule out a stroke. As time passed, her body continued to deteriorate.

“By that night in the hospital, I lost everything – from the neck down, I couldn’t move,” Baczyk said. “I was still able to breathe, but two days later, I was intubated.”

Her medical team discovered that Baczyk was suffering from a rare autoimmune disease called Guillain-Barré syndrome, which occurs when the body’s immune system attacks the nervous system. It often starts with weakness and tingling in the upper or lower extremities, which can spread to other parts of the body.

“I was in the intensive care unit, where I was intubated for eight days before they were able to transfer me for rehabilitation therapy at Jackson North,” Baczyk said. “I couldn’t move my legs or arms or speak at all – I was essentially paralyzed.”

When her therapists and co-workers at Jackson North first assessed her, they were shocked.

“I was surprised to see a woman that I constantly saw moving through the hospital halls, a colleague who was always so full of life, with no functional movement,” said Baltany Michel, an occupational therapist at Jackson North. “She had zero movement in her upper extremities, and showed slight muscle contractions in her lower extremities.”

When Baczyk first started her occupational and physical therapy sessions, she couldn’t hold her head up or sit upright.

“To even communicate with us and her nurses, she had to use a sip-and-puff device, which allowed her to blow into a tube to signal for help since her hands couldn’t function to press the call bell,” Michel said.

However, as time progressed, Baczyk slowly improved with targeted exercises in physical, occupational, speech, and recreational therapy to help with her function and mobility.

Her team also focused on neurological exercises to retrain the brain to send signals to her muscles, helping her regain voluntary control over her body, which had the most significant impact on her recovery.

After more than 100 days of hard work, Baczyk went from being entirely dependent to walking and climbing stairs on her own.

“My biggest goal was to be able to walk out of there,” she said. “Everyone at Jackson North was so creative, and with their help, I was able to reach major milestones.”

Today, Baczyk is back home and has regained much of her function in both her lower and upper extremities.

“I’m walking now and am able to move around by myself – although not gracefully – thanks to them,” she said.

Baczyk continues to work with her therapists at Jackson North to improve her fine motor skills and things like brushing her own teeth, combing her hair, pulling her clothes up, and feeding herself.

“Roma’s story serves as a powerful example of determination, teamwork, and the potential of intense therapy,” Michel said. “Her resilience inspired not only her, but all of us at Jackson North.”

“I can’t rave enough about the Jackson North rehabilitation team,” Baczyk said. “They are passionate, compassionate, creative, and care for each and every patient. They were a godsend.”