Young Mom Credits Mercy Rehabilitation for Recovery From Rare Condition

Korbie Oellrich – a healthy, 23-year-old with no known health issues – couldn’t have imagined how much her health would change in 2024.

It began on a Saturday in January, when the Cedar Rapids mother of two young children noticed pain in her lower back. Then, when she woke up the next day, her whole body was numb and tingling; she could barely walk. Tests showed that her spleen was enlarged and her white blood cell count was elevated. By Monday, she couldn’t walk and more tests confirmed suspicions that she was experiencing Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare condition brought on by an infection that causes the body to attack itself.

A few days later, Korbie began having trouble breathing when she was hospitalized at Mercy. So, she was transferred to the Intensive Care Center, where she was treated for pneumonia twice, had to be placed on a ventilator for five days and required a tracheotomy.

“I couldn’t talk or move my body,” she said. “Because I was trach’ed, I couldn’t go to therapy right away. I had to go to a long-term [acute] care [hospital]. That’s when I was able to start breathing on my own and get my trach out.”

In early March, the oral surgery clinic employee and bartender/server was able to return to Cedar Rapids and was admitted to Mercy’s Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit (IRU).

“When Korbie arrived, she was barely able to move her arms and had no movement in her legs,” said Physical Therapist Kaitlynn Pate, PT, DPT. “She worked incredibly hard despite the constant fatigue and nerve pain.”

However, Korbie was still extremely weak.

“I didn’t even want to go into a wheelchair; didn’t want to be lifted out of bed,” she said. “I didn’t want to do anything when I got back, but the therapists and nurses and techs were amazing. They reminded me that I’m still here for a reason and this is where I needed to be to continue to improve.”

The IRU team got to work immediately to evaluate Korbie and slowly build up her functions.

“That’s what we did every day, even if it was sitting on the side of the bed or brushing my hair or putting a shirt on,” Korbie said. “From the point I got there to the time I left, I was taking steps. I had AFOs (braces that go on your leg). With the help of those, I was able to use the track that they have there and start walking with my walker.”

By the time she left the IRU, Korbie was walking with the AFOs and just her walker.

“She had a goal to walk out of here at the end of her stay,” Kaitlynn said. “That is exactly what she did. On her day of discharge, she was able to walk off the unit in front of all the staff members from the floor and even some from ICU who treated her early on.” 

Korbie was discharged from Mercy’s IRU at the end of March, more than two months after her initial symptoms emerged. Six months later, she was still going to therapy twice a week and felt about 85% of her normal self.

“The therapists – Kaitlynn, PT; Aaron, OT; Aubrey, OTA; and Missy, a [patient care] tech – motivated me to continue to push,” she added. “I was there to fight even more and they were there to support and get me back to where I was.”

Today, Korbie still has some aches and pains, as well as tingling in her feet. These are all common. Even so, Korbie said she was thankful for her progress.

“I’m walking, I’m talking, I’m taking care of my girls, I’m working, I’m driving,” she said. “All things that I didn’t think I’d be doing.”