CDC to Investigate Child's Paralysis

Doctors at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas suspect an 11-year-old boy who can’t move his right arm or legs may have been infected with entrovirus-68.

Bryan Sotello, a 6th grader at Reed Elementary in Allen, has been at Children’s Medical since late July.

“I was completely scared when he told me the next day, Mom I cannot move my arm. I said , 'You’re kidding?' He say, 'No, I’m not kidding. That’s true. Look!' And his arm, like that” said his mother, Yadira Garcilazo.

After spending much of the past two months on a venitalator, Bryan still needs to use one at night to breathe.

“Right now he’s actually starting to breathe on his own without the vent, but we still keep the airway in until we know for a fact that they can go long term breathing on their own and able to clear their own secretions and cough on their own” said Respiratory Therapist Bridget Rippy.

Doctors are sending samples to the CDC to be tested for EV-68, concerned that he may have had the virus after hearing about similar cases of paralysis in Colorado.

The boy faces months, if not years, of physical therapy and he may never fully recover.

Now with a tracheostomy tube in his throat to help him breathe, Sotello is learning to talk again.

“Now I see him I feel happy because he can say, 'Mom.'”

NBC 5's Meredith Land contributed to this report.

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