Doctors hunt down a rare diagnosis

ONE day Alfio Leonardi was pounding the pavement along the 42-kilometre route of the Paluma Push. Another day not long after he was in the early stages of a battle with an extremely rare disease that quickly robbed him of the ability to walk and talk.

Mr Leonardi (known as ‘Fred’ to his friends) started to experience pins and needles in his hands and feet one morning and when they started to become painful later in the day, he decided he should attend Townsville University Hospital’s emergency department.

Doctors first diagnosed his condition as Guillain-barre syndrome in which the body’s immune system damages the body’s nerves.

When the usual treatment for that rare condition proved ineffective, doctors realised the lesions appearing on Mr Leonardi’s back could be a sign of an even rarer plasma cell disorder known as POEMS.

Mr Leonardi’s recovery might not have been so successful if it wasn’t for the incredible detective work carried out by the hospital’s medical experts.

“POEMS syndrome only occurs at an incidence of around one per 300,000500,000 people and in Fred’s specific case, was a very unusual onset,” Haematologist Dr Joel Wight said.

“POEMS usually progresses quite slowly, but for Fred his onset of symptoms escalated quickly which means we’re not sure howhis recovery will go.”

Now recovering quickly, Mr Leonardi wanted to pay tribute to the doctors and nurses who managed his condition.

“I’m leaving a great group of people who really got me through a lot of tough stuff,’’ he said.