After experiencing a near-death experience, Chelsea Lightbourn,21, of Ebensburg, said she believes it all happened for areason.

(Originally posted Sunday, Nov. 7, 2010.)

It all started in June 2007 — the end of her senior year of highschool. She said she had been dancing since age 3, but she wasstruggling to get through the end of her last dance recital of herhigh school career. She said she was under a lot of stress, and theday after her recital she began to suffer from extreme fatigue,vomiting, migraines, a blind spot in both of her eyes and pain andinflammation in her joints.

Lightbourn said after three weeks with no sign of improvement,she was tested for Lyme disease because she had an abnormalmosquito bite on her leg.

She said the results came back positive for the disease. Butafter further testing, doctors determined she didn’t have Lymedisease but rather some type of vascular encephalitis, or possiblymultiple sclerosis.

Wanting another opinion, her family took her to Children’sHospital in Pittsburgh, and there she was diagnosed with aninflammatory autoimmune disease.

Still without a definite diagnosis after many inconclusivetests, her case was taken to Buffalo, N.Y., to some of the topspecialists in the country. But after seeing no progress there,even after agreeing to become a case study, she saw a neurologistat Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. It was there that shewas diagnosed with neurosarcoidosis, a rare autoimmune disease anda complication of sarcoidosis, in which the immune system attacksthe brain.

 In January 2008, she and her family believed her health wasstable, so she ventured to England to study psychology at theUniversity of Buckingham. But she was forced to return home inMarch 2008 when symptoms flared up again. After Lightbournreturned, she had a near-death experience — she stopped breathingafter receiving too high of a dosage of medication. As a result,Lightbourn was placed on a ventilator for two days and eventuallybegan breathing on her own, but she had to relearn the basics suchas talking, eating and walking.

After recovering, she attended Pennsylvania Highlands CommunityCollege, which is close to her home. Now Lighhtbourn is a dean’slist student studying psychology with a minor in dance at IndianaUniversity of Pennsylvania.

Lightbourn said she enrolled with a full course load of credits,which was stressful. Possibly, because of stress being a trigger toher illness, she began to experience fatigue again and was in a caraccident in March because she fell asleep while driving. Shelearned she had developed a sleep intrusion disorder, which madeher brain sleep while she was physically awake, she said.

After overcoming many struggles, seeing many doctors and takingmany steroids, Lightbourn has now recovered, and believes she haslived through it so she can educate people about the disease.

“I don’t let the illness define me — I define me,” Lightbournsaid. “What really amazes me is the amount of inspiration I gave topeople and the amount of support I got from having to come backfrom such a low point so quickly, and I truly believe that God hasblessed me.

“My doctor, who is 62 and has seen every case in the book, toldme that he has never seen anyone get as sick as I did with adiagnosis like this and live to tell the story,” Lightbourn said.“I can get through anything no matter what comes my way. I havesurvived a near-death experience and come back from a vegetatedstate.”

Lightbourn is a member of Sigma Alpha Lambda, an honorsorganization at IUP that works to raise money each semester fordifferent causes. This semester they will be collecting for thePittsburgh Heart of Gold Foundation, which conducts research intocures for sarcoidosis.

“We are really excited to do this and to raise money for a greatcause,” said Kierstin Bolton, president of Sigma Alpha Lambda atIUP.

Members will be hosting an all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner from3 to 7 p.m. Monday at the College Lodge in White Township. The costis $6 per person, and members of SAL will serve each person. Themenu will include spaghetti, salad, rolls and butter, desserts andbeverages. Tickets can be purchased from members or at the door.they will also be raffling a Steelers basket, and donations areappreciated.