‘Devastated’: Eight-year-old Eliyana Salmanzadeh suddenly loses ability to walk to horrific auto-immune condition

Doctors were unable to discover what was wrong with eight-year-old Eliyana Salmanzadeh who suddenly lost her ability to walk and mysteriously saw light spots in her vision.

Eliyana Salmanzadeh in hospital with her younger brother Cyrus after being diagnosed with neuromyelitis optica. Picture: Supplied by family

A mysterious illness plagued eight-year-old Eliyana Salmanzadeh, with doctors turning her away despite her screaming in pain.

Her parents were desperate to discover what was happening to their little girl, continuing to bring her to professionals but they weren’t getting any answers until she was finally diagnosed with an extremely rare auto-immune disease.

Eliyana’s dad, Matthew, told The Advertiser there was no cure.

“We don’t know what the future holds for her, we don’t know,” he said.

Eliyana was diagnosed with neuromyelitis optica (NMO) — a central nervous system disorder that causes inflammation in nerves of the eye and the spinal cord.

Eliyana Salmanzadeh, 8, who was diagnosed with neuromyelitis optica (NMO), with her family – dad Matthew, mum Mahsa and brother Cyrus. Picture: Supplied by family

Eliyana has spent time in and out of hospital as doctors try to find the cause of her symptoms. Picture: Supplied by family

In early 2024 Eliyana began vomiting randomly and experienced sudden losses of vision.

“She said she saw light spots in her vision,” Mr Salmanzadeh, from Flagstaff Hill, said.

Mr Salmanzadeh and his wife Mahsa, who also share a son Cyrus, brought their eight-year-old daughter to an ophthalmologist who could not find anything wrong with her.

Her symptoms grew worse from there. Eliyana then continued to feel tingling in her legs, then suddenly she couldn’t walk at all.

Eventually she was diagnosed with functional neurological disorder (FND) — a neuropsychiatric disorder that affects brain function and causes symptoms such as weakness.

Eliyana was originally diagnosed with FND before finally discovering she has NMO. Picture: Supplied by family

But her parents weren’t satisfied with the diagnosis.

They brought her to her pediatrician who despite supporting the diagnosis scheduled Eliyana for an MRI which came back clear.

“A few days after that appointment she pretty much lost her ability to walk so at this point it became very concerning to us,” Mr Salmanzadeh said.

They rushed her to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital where she got sent home after the doctors told her to return if symptoms persisted.

“We kept her at home … she could barely walk, she was fully supported by us, she couldn’t really hold herself up,” Mr Salmanzadeh said.

“If she sat by herself and there was no support, she’d fall over.”

Days after she left the hospital she woke up screaming in pain saying her “back was on fire”.

Mr Salmanzadeh rushed his daughter to the hospital four weeks ago and eventually an MRI on her back found significant inflammation and further tests revealed she had neuromyelitis optica (NMO).

Eliyana, who her dad calls a “trooper”, has since undergone treatment to manage the NMO.

NMO is extremely rare and even rarer in children with only four per cent of NMO cases found in children.

Eliyana’s parents were “devastated” by the diagnosis and are left wondering what this means for their daughter’s future.

“We have to take her in for treatments every couple of weeks to get an infusion that suppresses part of her immune system that causes this to happen which then obviously opens her up to getting all kinds of infections and other diseases,” Mr Salmanzadeh said.

“It’s just the unknown of it, she could lose her sight, she could lose her ability to walk, she could lose function to her head, incontinence, all of those are potential possibilities if she has a future attack.

“For us it’s just being mindful of the symptoms, catching any early symptom of a potential attack as quickly as possible and obviously taking her to hospital straight away if we think that there is one.”

Her family want to raise awareness for NMO and want to raise funds to find a cure for the condition. Picture: Supplied by family

Mr Salmanzadeh has started a GoFundMe fundraiser to raise money to find a cure for NMO.

“My daughter’s experience, she went through multiple doctors, multiple visits and most people thought she was making it up,” he said.

“When they thought she had FND I asked what we should do about her pain and they said ‘ignore it, it’s not real’.

“For her and as well as a parent, that’s not nice to hear.”

Mr Salmanzadeh wants there to be more awareness for NMO so what happened to his daughter doesn’t happen to anyone else.

Originally published as ‘Devastated’: Eight-year-old Eliyana Salmanzadeh suddenly loses ability to walk to horrific auto-immune condition