My brother is 43. He's had badly controlled diabetes since his teens (type 2, but carried on eating cakes, chocolate and junk food, he is now on insulin and other meds). He also has a skin complaint that he takes immunosupressants for).
Two months ago he had double vision and was sent by the GP to A&E. He was then blue-lighted to a stroke unit and was diagnosed with a stroke (can't remember the name but near the brain stem on one side). He was discharged the next day.
He then began falling at home. He was taken to hospital a few times (as he is very heavy and couldn't get up, and lives at home - dad is recovering from bladder and kidney cancer, has stage 4 kidney disease and bad COPD, and mum is tiny). He also damaged his heads during the falls. Each time he was sent for CT scans, nothing was seen and he was sent home.
This carried on for a week (including him soiling himself as he couldn't get to the toilet in time). He stumbled all the time, and his speech was slurred.
7 weeks ago he was finally admitted. To start with the doctors told my parents that it was diabetes, then it was pychosomatic. They also said that they made a mistake and he hadn't, in fact, had a stroke.
I saw a consultant 3 weeks ago, who said that he had a stroke, but it wasn't that which were causing his symptoms. They are positive on that (they said it was a TIA, and there is no damage seen from the several scans; MRI & CT). He had a few lumbar puncture tests which showed high WBC in the CSF.
After an EEG he was sent to the top neurological hospital.
They have diagnosed him with ataxia (he cannot swallow properly and needs everything minced up), his speech is slurred, his eyes don't open fully and his vision is blurred. He needs to be lifted onto a comode and cleaned, and encephalitis.
The doctors suspect either a rare autoimmune disorder or a rare genetic disorder (apparently a test for VCJD has ruled out that being a possibilty).
The hospital say they are considering a plasma exchange.
We cannot find out anything. When we ask for test results we are told they take ages to come back. But my parents are besides themselves (my dad expecially worries me).
He also gets angry and tells my parents to 'fuck off' and is very nasty.
The doctors seem to have suspicions but won't share them.
Any ideas (one family member does think it's in his mind 