{"id":586931,"date":"2026-04-07T00:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T00:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/586931\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T00:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T00:26:11","slug":"edmonton-doctor-shares-story-of-recovery-from-rare-autoimmune-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/586931\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton doctor shares story of recovery from rare autoimmune disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Rob Agostinis never expected to go from treating patients to becoming one himself.<\/p>\n

Four years ago, Dr. Agostinis was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease called anti-neurofascin syndrome. His antibodies attacked the junctions between nerves. At the time, he was only the 17th documented case in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was paralyzed from the jaw down and couldn\u2019t breathe,\u201d Dr. Agostinis explained. \u201cMy immune system went bad on me and decided to attack the junctions between my nerves. So all of a sudden, there were junctions, and there was no transmission. I was paralyzed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding, \u201cI couldn\u2019t even feel my lower legs, and I was terrified.\u201d<\/p>\n

After months of intensive treatments, Dr. Agostinis was transferred to Edmonton\u2019s Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital. In this space, he started to make significant progress after using aqua therapy, which he describes as life-saving.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was on steroids, which made me swollen and then all of a sudden, it actually got rid of that. It got rid of that so much that the wedding band fell off my finger,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Today, the recovery pool at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital sits empty. It was closed in Nov. 2024 due to structural failure. The Glenrose Hospital Foundation is halfway to its $6.5 million goal to rebuild. Dr. Agostinis calls it a lifesaver.<\/p>\n

\"\"The recovery pool at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital. (Hiba Kamal-Choufi, CityNews)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt brought me confidence. It was that moment. They put the wheelchair right up to the rails. I got up, went down the rails and once I was in the water I was right. I was fantastic,\u201d Dr. Agostinis explained.<\/p>\n

Dr. Agostinis wants to raise awareness of the rare disease that hit him out of nowhere. As he does so, he wants to help raise money for the Glenrose to rebuild its aqua therapy \u2013 so important in his miraculous recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanna tell people what is it like to being the way I was paralyzed and basically locked in syndrome, but also wanna tell people that there\u2019s hope and there\u2019s possibilities and the possibility to actually progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tDr. Rob Agostinis. (Hiba Kamal-Choufi, CityNews) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Rob Agostinis never expected to go from treating patients to becoming one himself. Four years ago, Dr.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-586931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}