A mother-of-three had to be taken to a psychiatric hospital when a tumour on her ovary triggered a brain condition which made her hallucinate and turn violent.
Lorina Gutierrez, 39, suffered from fits, her heart stopped and she lost the ability to walk, talk and eat by herself because of the rare illness.
Her doctors thought she was having a nervous breakdown and her husband, Stephen, 42, even splashed her with water because he thought she was possessed.
But the real culprit was a rare swelling of the brain called autoimmune encephalitis, triggered by a huge growth on one of her her ovaries.
Lorina Gutierrez, 39, suffered from hallucinations, seizures and violent behaviour as a result of her own immune system attacking her brain, a condition triggered by an ovary tumour
Mrs Gutierrez's husband, Stephen, 42, said his wife acted like she was possessed by an evil spirit, becoming paranoid there were cameras in the couple's home and even trying to punch Mr Gutierrez during her psychiatric assessment
Mr Gutierrez, a truck driver, said: 'I was so scared, it was like she was possessed. The night after she came home from the ER we were up the whole night.
'She couldn't sleep and she was just talking gibberish. She kept saying "We need to get out of here, we need to leave."
'She kept getting up and trying to leave the house.
'The next morning I brought her to her doctor, who asked me had she been drinking or using drugs.'
The couple, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, are parents to Jonathan, 25, Matthew, 19 and Alyssa, 16, and are now determined to raise awareness about the condition.
Autoimmune encephalitis is a serious illness in which the body's immune system overreacts – in this case to Mrs Gutierrez's tumour – and attacks someone's brain.
It can cause seizures, difficulty moving or communicating, psychosis, aggression and panic attacks.
According to the International Autoimmune Encephalitis Society, the condition affects around 90,000 people worldwide each year.
Mr and Mrs Gutierrez, and their doctors, were baffled by her sudden change in character, which made her paranoid there were cameras in her home.
She said: 'They believed I was having a nervous breakdown even though I didn't have a history of mental health issues.
'Over the course of a few days, my husband said my attitude completely changed.
'I can't remember this but he said I was getting scared and I was worried there were cameras in the house.
'I told him we had to unplug them. I kept trying to escape and get out of the house.'
Mrs Gutierrez's condition was triggered by a huge six-by-six inch (15cm) tumour which had grown on one of her ovaries. After the tumour was removed doctors flushed the damaging immune cells out of her body using blood filtering and steroids
Mrs Gutierrez (pictured before her ordeal) said she doesn't remember a lot of her treatment but is now making it her mission to raise awareness of autoimmune encephalitis
Autoimmune encephalitis is a serious medical condition in which the immune system attacks the brain,
