I was given antidepressants before attacking parents… docs thought it was a breakdown but it was something more sinister
WAKING up and slowly opening her eyes, Abi Burton gazed around the hospital room.
Staring back at the England rugby star were the desperately worried faces of her parents as she wondered what on earth had happened to her.
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Back in 2022, Olympian Abi, 25, was put in a medically induced coma by doctors for almost a month after what they thought could be a mental health episode caused by antidepressants.
But after numerous tests, it turned out to be something even more sinister - a deadly brain-eating disease that made her extremely aggressive - even causing her to lash out at her parents.
It left her unable to walk and suffering from severe memory loss as she battled to make it back onto the rugby pitch.
Abi, who was called up to the England national women's rugby union team in January this year, shares her shocking story with The Sun.
'I was numb'
I had no clue. I knew I was in the hospital but I didn't really feel anything, I was numb.
It was summer 2022, and unbeknownst to me I had been lying in a medically induced coma for almost a month.
With zero memory of what had happened, I could only listen in total disbelief as my parents explained what had led to me waking up 25 days later and 44lbs (20kg) lighter.
My mum, Sarah, told me that when doctors decided they wanted to put me in a medically induced coma, she wasn't there, and my poor dad Danny had to make that decision alone.
He confessed to me that he carried the weight of that decision every day, feeling like if I hadn't woken up he would have killed me.
I heard how they had kept the extent of how ill I was hidden from my two younger brothers, twins Joe and Oliver, 23, and carried the worry themselves, just trying to keep the family together.
What is Encephalitis and its consequences
As soon as I woke up, I was in floods of tears, and we all held hands together. They did not leave my side.
Prior to all this I had been struggling for a long time, not feeling like myself and battling with my mental health.
I started to feel different in May 2022.
I am a bubbly person, but I started to not want to spend time with friends, and I just felt sad most of the time.
A psychologist I went to see for some answers thought I had depression and I was put on the antidepressant sertraline in June.
I was desperate to feel like my old self again, but days later I had a fitting seizure at the dinner table that lasted for six minutes.
'I was sectioned'
Horrified, my mum called an ambulance and I was rushed to A&E.
I was desperate to know what was wrong with me, and at first, doctors thought maybe the antidepressants had caused it.
After that, I suddenly went from a very timid person to having manic and aggressive behaviour.
I punched my mum in the face with my phone, I pulled spindles off the stairs, and tried to hit people with them.
Doctors came to the conclusion I had stress -induced psychosis due to my job as an Olympic rugby union player and the high-pressure environment I was in, gearing up for the Commonwealth Games.
I kept displaying aggressive behaviour towards anyone who would come near me.
I kicked nurses in the hospital and put one of them out of work for a few days.
I even picked up knives and got into full-on physical fights with my parents - who were devastated and worried sick.
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I had two more frightening seizures before I was eventually sectioned at the hospital under section two, which means all your rights are taken from you.
I couldn't function. Normal daily tasks like going outside for a walk or taking food from the fridge felt impossible.
I continued having seizures, both twitchy facial ones and seizures where I completely blanked out.
It was only while I was sectioned that a blood test revealed I had autoimmune encephalitis, which occurs when the body's immune system mistakenly attacks the brain.
'Completely baffled'
By this point in July, I was so poorly and too agitated for treatment, doctors told my dad I had to be put into a medically induced coma.
Originally, it was supposed to be four days, so they could treat me, but it became a lot longer.
And that is what had led me to finally waking up three and a half weeks later, with no idea at all of what had happened.
One of the main symptoms of encephalitis is that you lose all memory, and it was a lot to wake up and find out how differently I had behaved as a person.
I pride myself on first impressions really mattering.
Then I discovered a lot of people had met me for the first time and I was trying to hurt them because I thought they were trying to hurt me.
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I still carry a lot of guilt around, especially towards my parents having to go through all of that. And I don't remember any of it.
I was shocked when people I thought I had met for the first time in the hospital told me stories about how I had pushed them out of the way.
"Oh, you look so much better than last time I saw you," a security guard I didn't recognise said to me.
Completely baffled, I asked my mum what he meant and she told me I had got out of the ward and rugby tackled three people and had to be sedated.
Hearing that was just so shocking, I could never imagine doing anything like it.
What is encephalitis?
Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain.
It can vary in its severity, with typical symptoms including a reduction or alteration in consciousness, aphasia (an inability to understand or produce speech), headache, fever, confusion, a stiff neck, and vomiting.
Complications may include seizures, hallucinations, speech problems, memory problems, and hearing problems.
It can be life-threatening and requires urgent treatment in hospital.
In many cases, the cause remains unknown. But encephalitis can be triggered by viruses and rabies, as well as bacteria, fungi, or parasites.
Other causes include autoimmune diseases and certain medications.
Diagnosis is typically made by carrying out blood tests, analysing cerebrospinal fluid and medical imaging.
Treatment often involves antiviral medicines, steroid injections, antibiotics, painkillers, drugs to control seizures, and ventilators.
How long someone with encephalitis needs to stay in hospital can range from a few days to several weeks or even months.
Many patients make a full recovery, but some are left with long-term damage to their brain, which can cause memory loss, seizures, behavioural changes, persistent tiredness and issues with attention, concentration, planning and problem solving.
Source: NHS
On the pitch, I'm an aggressive character. But off it, I'm quite a gentle giant.
It just did not sound like me at all and it was so hard to comprehend that this had happened.
'An absolute journey'
Waking up, I thought I could do anything. And with Rugby World Cup Sevens three weeks away, I was certain I could still take part - even though I couldn't even walk to the toilet on my own.
I turned purple on an exercise bike and my heart rate went through the roof.
Still, I was very optimistic and said: "I will be OK in three weeks." My mum firmly answered: 'No you will not.'
Of course, I wasn't able to compete, but from a rugby point of view, I've been able to get back to playing internationally, which is everything I had hoped for when I woke up.
From a cognitive point of view, having to adapt my life into something different has been an absolute journey.
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Today, I am a bit slower and I forget what I have told people.
The ordeal has changed my perspective on life in general.
It sucks when you're not selected for a tournament. It sucks when you get injured.
But actually, I just have to tell myself, at least I'm not dying again.
In the past, not getting chosen for tournaments or getting injured used to feel like the end of the world, and I would think: "I'm never going to come back from this."
But now, as long as I'm healthy and happy and my friends and family are too, then that's all I can ask for.
I've faced the reality that I might never play rugby again and it now allows me to enjoy it a lot more, rather than put so much pressure on it and my teammates.
My closest friends are in the seventh squad and they were with me through it all, and they were some of the first people to see me when I woke up.
They've supported me throughout this entire journey and will continue to support me, even though it was difficult for them at the time.
The staff made the decision not to tell any of the girls that I was in a coma while it was the Commonwealth Games and I was absent.
My mum didn't want them to know either because she didn't want it to affect the tournament.
But they knew there was something not quite right - and ultimately, it has brought us closer as a squad.
'Never give up'
One of our family mottos is, 'Never give up', which I've got tattooed on my foot.
I am proud I was able to go back to university to graduate in exercise science in March 2024, and that happened so quickly because of my family.
One of the main things I want to say to everyone is - allow yourself to rely on the people that love you, because there will be people who love you.
Sometimes you might not feel it, but the people who support you and the people who love you will be the people who carry you through those times.
It's all about being able to lean on those people.
Now, aged 25, it doesn't feel like it even happened to me. Even though it spanned over a period of four month, I can't really comprehend it even happened.
I look back at photos from that period and it literally feels like a distant dream.
If you're experiencing similar feelings, please go to your GP. Don't ignore it.
And if you have seizures, you are within your rights to get someone to look at you. Make sure you seek help.
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He went on: 'It is not acceptable that someone who looks like me, on average waits 20 minutes longer in A&E than white patients. 'To achieve an inclusive, equitable NHS we need an inclusive equitable culture from top to bottom.' Mrs Adebowale emigrated from Nigeria to Scotland in the 1950s. Lord Adebowale, who grew up in Wakefield, said that he did not want to blame anyone, but he said that he wanted to highlight a 'systematic problem'. 'She lived to the age of 92 and you may think, 'well, she had the good old innings', but for a lot of those years she was in some discomfort, and it looks like she died from cancer,' he told reporters. 'It's still the case that if you look like me, you're more likely to discover that you've got cancer in A&E, and that that for me is it's an example of two different services. 'I used the phrase 'black service'… you only have to look at the stats – across all the major disease categories that we talk about, black people have a worse experience and worse outcomes – we've known that for years, I'm not saying anything new. 'My mother is an episodic example of a systematic problem. 'We've got a cancer programme, we've got a cancer we've had targets for diagnostics, and pathways, and yet, people like my mother…' Lord Adebowale, who established the NHS Race and Health Observatory in 2021 to try and tackle inequalities experienced by black and minority ethnic patients in healthcare, went on: 'I just think there are too many, too many situations where people that look like me and shades of me don't get the service. 'What I'm talking about is a systemic problem exampled by what I have experienced a my mum, and I think she represents a lot of other mums out there and lots of other people out there.' Asked about his comments about a 'black service', Lord Adebowale went on: 'Why did I (say) it? Because I'm sick of it not changing like everyone else, and I'm close enough to it to know that it happens. 'I could have stood there and give you a load of stats, and you wouldn't be talking to me. 'And my mum, I think, God bless her, I think she would have wanted me to say it.' He added: 'The disproportionate poor services that too many poor people and too many black people experience, that's what I'm sick of.' He said there was nothing in his mother's medical records to suggest she had cancer, adding: 'She went to A&E in a poor condition. 'My sister described a hospital that was really struggling when she went in, she had to argue for mum to get a room. 'It was a very busy day. There had to be a negotiation to find a space, which you shouldn't have to do, but that's what happens when people are under pressure.' He added: 'We haven't got to the bottom of it, and that's why I'm not blaming anybody, and I don't want to, but I can talk about my experience and my observation of what happened to my mum. 'How does that happen? I know it does happen. People have chronic diseases and people don't know and they die of them – I know it's more likely to happen if you're black, it's also more likely to happen if you're poor. 'It's all part of the same story. I used to own story to illustrate a bigger problem, which is systemic.' On his mother, whose full name was Grace Amoke Owuren Adebowale and who worked in various nursing sectors including mental health, acute care and maternity, he said: 'If you a nurse it is what you are, it's what you're born to do.' Commenting on Lord Adebowale's remarks, Professor Habib Naqvi, chief executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, said: 'We extend our sincere condolences, thoughts and support to Lord Victor and the Adebowale family. 'The loss of a beloved family member is extremely difficult. We thank Victor for the candour in sharing his personal testimony. 'The NHS Race and Health Observatory continues to support healthcare organisations in implementing meaningful change for ethnic minority patients, communities, and members of the healthcare workforce.'Kate Seymour, from the charity Macmillan Cancer Support, said: 'Stories like Grace Amoke Owuren Adebowale's highlight the heartbreaking reality for some when it comes to accessing cancer care in this country. 'It is categorically unacceptable that some people with cancer are having worse experiences simply because of who they are or where they live.' An NHS spokesperson said: 'Everyone – no matter their background – should receive the best NHS care possible. 'That's why we are working across the NHS to ensure that happens – from improving access to cancer diagnosis and treatment, to expanding health checks for Black and Asian communities and increasing uptake of blood pressure and cholesterol medication in under-served groups. 'But we know there is much more to do, and tackling health inequalities will form an important part of the upcoming 10 Year Health Plan.'
