Woman Speaks After Disease Silences Her for 3 Years

A Kansas woman who had been unable to speak for nearly three years due to what was believed to be Lou Gehrig’s disease unexpectedly began speaking on Halloween, the Associated Press reported.

A patient at Medicalodge North Post-Acute Care Center in Arkansas City, De Glaze spoke first to her husband, Joe.

“She said, ‘Thank you,’” he told the AP. “It just happened suddenly, and then, wham, she took off [talking]. Then she started complaining.” Joe said his wife’s doctors said they had never seen a Lou Gehrig’s patient regain his or her voice after losing it.

“Lou Gehrig’s disease is a continually deteriorating disease that continues until a person dies,” said Dr. David Schmeidler, De’s physician. “It’s a neurological disease, and they gradually go down, lose control of their muscles and waste away.”

Schmeidler, however, said De had not been formally diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. A nurse for 30 years before she became ill, De considers her recovery an answer to prayer. She told the AP that women from her church, First Assembly of God, prayed for her every Tuesday.

Last year, another patient who suffered critical internal and head injuries after a 2002 car accident spoke her first words in three years. “It’s just something in the water,” Administrator Erik Hatten told the AP. “It’s been pretty amazing.”