a North Carolina The doctor is working to rebuild his life and help other patients, just two years after he was left paralyzed by a rare syndrome after contracting COVID.
Dr. William Dugal, now 34, contracted the virus after attending a wedding with his wife and infant daughter over Labor Day weekend in 2022, NBC News reports.
He soon discovered he had a rare post-viral condition known as Guillain-Barre syndrome, and within a few days he lost all the ability to move, swallow or breathe without assistance.
Unsure if he would survive, Dugal said he had “made peace with the fact that I was probably going to die.”
But Dugal persevered and after a few months he was able to get moving again.
Dr. William Dugal, now 34, became paralyzed shortly after contracting COVID in 2022
Dugal’s problems started in September 2022, just when everything was going well for him and his wife Rebecca.
She had just given birth to a beautiful baby girl named Caroline, and he had just completed surgical training and accepted a job as a general surgeon in private practice. according to WFMY.
But after attending a wedding over Labor Day weekend, Dugal started noticing some worrying signs.
“He said he felt like his toes were a little numb, and we thought it was because he was chasing all the cousins around because he was wearing boots and stuff. [at the wedding]but things progressed quickly,” Rebecca told the local news station.
“I remember we were driving through the airport and he was really struggling. He just kept getting worse, his back pain was really bad.”
Within a few days, Dugal said he could no longer walk.
“I knew something was seriously wrong,” he said.
His wife had recently had a baby girl and he was about to start a new job when he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Dugal then went to Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist hospital, where he was told he had Guillain-Barre syndrome – a rare condition in which the immune system attacks the layer around the nerves called myelin, causing nerve damage.
Most people recover or have mild symptoms, but the condition can also be fatal, especially if the paralysis spreads to the muscles used for breathing.
There is no cure or definitive treatment, so doctors usually provide supportive measures.
“You don’t know how serious it’s going to be and you don’t know how long it’s going to last,” Dugal explained. “For me it was two kinds of fear.”
But as a doctor, Dugal said he was “keenly aware” of how bad his situation was.
“It was a very humbling feeling when you realize that you are at the mercy of the process and that you have to accept whatever happens.”
Dugal’s symptoms worsened over the course of a month in the hospital
Unfortunately, Dugal said, his symptoms worsened over the course of a month in the hospital “with complication after complication.”
He soon became completely paralyzed and could no longer swallow or breathe without assistance.
‘I couldn’t move my eyes or blink. And while that’s happening, I can’t express enough the fear and uncertainty I had,” he said.
Dugal then had to be put on a ventilator and he wasn’t sure if he would ever recover.
“I was at peace with the fact that I was probably going to die,” he told NBC News.
‘I looked at [my wife] and told her to take care of our daughter.”
After being put on a ventilator, Dugal said he made peace ‘that I was probably going to die’
He would then be on a ventilator for two weeks, after which he developed pneumonia and both his lungs collapsed.
As a result, his oxygen levels became dangerously low and he did not get enough oxygen to his brain – which could be fatal.
One evening he started coding and the doctors placed him on an ECMO machine, which takes over heart and lung functions.
Dugal was on the machine for about nine days before being put back on a ventilator, but was still unable to speak, wiggle his toes or blink.
“I was completely trapped in my own body, sitting there staring at the same spot on the wall.”
Things got worse when he lost contact with a surgical practice because he couldn’t start on time.
Dugal lost 60 pounds and was still being fed through a feeding tube when he began inpatient rehabilitation
Doctors eventually recommended that he be sent to inpatient rehab, but the only one that would accept him on a ventilator was in Houston, Texas.
So Dugal took an air ambulance to TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston.
The first few days turned out to be even harder.
Dugal lost 60 pounds and was still fed through a feeding tube because he was too weak to swallow.
He still couldn’t sit up or leave the bed on his own, but he was quickly making small progress.
“I remember the first time I could move my big toe a little bit,” he said. “It was the most boring thing you’ve ever seen.”
Dugal spent another two months in the hospital, but still required physical, occupational and speech therapy at home to relearn daily tasks.
‘I was trying to get my life skills back: being able to get dressed, to eat alone… tie [my] shoes, pick up objects.”
Finally, a full nine months after his shock diagnosis, Dugal was able to walk again.
And when his mobility returned, Rebecca gave him a virtual reality set to practice his surgical skills.
In July 2023, Dugal returned to work – at the same hospital where he recovered
In July 2023, Dugal returned to work – at the same hospital where he recovered.
He started in a laboratory performing surgical tests and then started an ECMO fellowship where for almost a year now he has been “giving patients the same treatment that saved me in the same hospital,” he said.
“It was great to be able to work with the same people who saved me: therapists and surgeons,” he told NBC News.
Ultimately, he said, the experience made him a more caring doctor.
“I have more empathy and a better understanding of the patient experience,” Dugal said.
“I hope I can offer the same compassion and support to other people in similar situations.”
