Case of girl with seizures baffles doctors

Ellie Mitchell has been in hospital since March after her parents noticed her face twitching and has been diagnosed with progressive myoclonic epilepsy.

Doctors have tried endless medications to treat the seizures but Ellie's condition means that her body has rejected every drug.

She is currently unable to leave the high-dependency unit at Sheffield Children's Hospital where her desperate family are hoping a cure can be found.

Her grandmother, Sandra Allott, 52, from Rawmarsh, near Rotherham, said: "It's a rare case and the doctors are doing everything they can.

"We just hoping and praying that one day we will be able to bring her home and that they will find a way to stop these fits."

The illness was spotted when Ellie's parents, Claire and Andrew Mitchell, became concerned when their daughter's face began twitching.

The flinches became more frequent leaving Ellie unable to control her own body. The family GP sent her to Rotherham General Hospital where she was immediately referred to the Children's Hospital.

Test results revealed myoclonic seizures and at one stage her condition worsened to the extent that she needed to be placed on a ventilator in the intensive care unit.

Doctors placed a line directly into her main artery which appeared to stabilise her but Ellie suffered seizures continuously and she was taken back to the High Dependency Unit.

Her family are currently maintaining a bedside vigil and she is being fed through her nose.

Ms Allott said: "At the moment the only thing she is on is a sedation drug. She is so brave and we have never heard her cry.

"We are all so proud of her and the way she is handling it. She knows about her condition and talks to the doctors about the various tubes and lines they have put into her."

Sandra's sister Kathryn Gurner, 41, has organised a series of

fundraising events in an attempt to take Ellie to Disneyland in Paris.