Menu Close

Sander Hendrix

Herpes simplex encephalitis & Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis

Image

The Day Everything Changed.

On 12 September 2020, my brain suddenly stopped doing what it was supposed to do. The day before, I felt a bit sick. But I wanted to work, from home because of covid and we had been sitting at home for six months. As an event and live show manager, I always had everything under control. But on that day, the lights suddenly went out for me. I was sitting on the sofa and couldn’t talk anymore. I had an epileptic fit. Terrifying for my girlfriend and children. I was rushed by ambulance to the hospital and hospitalised immediately. They had absolutely no idea what was wrong with me.

One thing they were pretty soon sure of, it was not corona. From those first days in hospital, I don’t remember anything. After several tests, it became clear that I had an inflammation in my brain caused by a virus: I had herpes encephalitis. A rare infection that can leave you with permanent brain damage and can be fatal.

My life was turned upside down: from never being sick to deathly ill. When I recovered, I didn’t know anything at all. I didn’t even know who my girlfriend and children were. Fortunately, after a few days, memories started to come back and things slowly started to improve. In total, I spent about 2 weeks in hospital. After that, I was transferred to a rehabilitation centre. There, I went outside to walk again and cycle again (wearing a helmet to be sure). After a total of 6 weeks, I returned home. I thought: I survived. But I wasn’t there yet: things turned out differently.

A few weeks later, I started acting strange: talking weird and sending weird WhatsApp’s to friends, over a hundred in one evening. Those around me started to get worried. I didn’t realise it myself: very strange, you’re there, but you’re not. I developed mental disorders: I became crazier and crazier. My brain was, figuratively speaking, on fire. One morning I woke up in a psychiatric centre. They didn’t know what was going on. Only when the Erasmus Hospital after several weeks presented the results of the epidural. it became clear that I had Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. It was a reaction to the earlier virus: my own brain was in fact attacked by antibodies from my own body. Relatively little is known about this disease.

I can say that I am now back in control of my life. But different than before 12 September 2020, the day everything changed. To this day, I sometimes cannot find words. The aftereffects of my disease make it impossible for me to work as a show manager. Being a show manager was an important part of my life. My mission was to create an experience and make a huge impact with a show or event. For me, the positivity the event industry brought me has had a beneficial effect on my recovery, I am convinced.

Making an impact is what I still want to do. Although in a different way. Besides my work as a creative director, I give various presentations. Not only about working as a showmanager and the world behind the scenes of the events industry, but also about my battle against my disease. With my presentation ‘Losing control’, I want to show people that you can turn a difficult road into a beautiful footpath, with the help of others. Resilience and persistence are very important in this. Losing control is recognisable for many people: you all lose control sometimes to some extent. How nice is it that I can inspire people by combining my own story with my experience in how to keep an audience on the edge of their seats? It gives me a lot of satisfaction, perhaps even more than the finest dinner shows I have directed.

I see a bright future ahead in which I can inspire others with my experiences and my creative knowledge.

Listen to the podcast here

https://app.springcast.fm/16997/de-dag-dat-alles-anders-werd