A HAMPSHIRE student told today how she was paralysed from the neck down in the space of just two hours after being struck by a rare spinal disorder.
It started when Abby Rout, 20, felt shooting pains and numbness in her hand and within two hours she had lost all feeling below her neck.
Doctors diagnosed acute transverse myelitis, a rare condition which can be caused by a viral infection or vaccination or spinal injury.
It affects the spinal cord and causes paralysis and numbness in the limbs leaving many victims with severe disabilities, while others can make a complete or partial recovery within two years.
The keen horse rider had gone to a pub with some friends after a college reunion on October 4.
Miss Rout said: "I hadn't had anything alcoholic to drink. I had just got into the pub when my arm started to really hurt and then I dropped my bag."
She had shooting pains and then her legs began to go numb and her friends rushed her to Southampton General Hospital.
Doctors told Miss Rout, who dreamed of becoming a riding instructor, that she may never sit on her horse Pandora again.
Miss Rout, who is on an equine studies course at Sparsholt College, near Winchester, is now being treated at Western Community Hospital in Southampton.
She still cannot walk but has regained some feeling in her right side.
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