Atlanta, Georgia’s Linseigh Green received a diagnosis of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) when she was born. She was sent to the hospital’s NICU only two weeks after her birth.
Linseigh’s doctor, John Bleacher, M.D., diagnosed her illness in 1997. Dr. Bleacher is now retired from Atlanta’s Children’s Healthcare. The doctor told Fox 5 Atlanta that NEC typically strikes infants who are premature or medically frail. Dr. Bleacher said that it is a difficult disease to treat and added that the mortality rate is between thirty to forty percent.
NEC may strike babies with partially developed immune and digestive systems or who are not receiving sufficient blood flowing to their gut. This allows bacteria to overwhelm their system, releasing toxins that destroy intestinal tissue.
Dr. Bleacher operated twice. He removed the dead tissue from her intestines. Once Linseigh recovered, the doctor reconnected her intestines.
Linseigh eventually started school. Her grades were good, but she had difficulty keeping up with her class. Linseigh also had some difficulty eating and maintaining a healthy weight. While in high school she was rushed to the hospital with severe pain in her intestines.
Linseigh attended NYU after graduating from Marist in Atlanta Georgia. It was then that she learned about the NEC Society and the way in which the NEC disease affects others. In June 2020 Linseigh became a member of the NEC Society’s Board which oversees NEC operations, projects, and research.
She describes the struggles that other NEC children have, such as cerebral palsy, while at the same time having to rely on feeding tubes. Linseigh realized that things could have been so much worse for her.
However, she did not make it through twenty-five years unscathed. Linseigh had long-term neurological complications due to NEC. When she arrived at Cambridge University in England to work on her master’s degree, she had partial paralysis, a tic affecting her eyes, and an impediment in her speech. She received her master’s degree at Cambridge in 2022. While there she participated in ‘storytelling’ and spreading the word about NEC.
Her most recent setback was a diagnosis of a functional neurological disorder. Linseigh explains that she managed top honors in spite of a cognitive dysfunction diagnosis.
To date, Linseigh is still the only NEC survivor who has been speaking at medical conferences to promote awareness about the need for NEC research and funding.
