To watch Andria Fernandez jump, run, smile at the Boomers Volleyball Club tryouts recently, you would never know she was hospitalized a year ago, motionless with no definitive time frame for recovery.

On Aug. 23, 2008, Andria was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a rare disease that attacks the nervous system. GBS struck former Chicago Bears football player William The Refrigerator Perry.

A sophomore at Sagemont School in Weston, Andria unexpectantly spent one month speechless, two months dormant, three months in a hospital bed and many more months rehabbing. A devastating experience for anyone, let alone a 15-year-old with plenty of life to live.

``The disease is like ALS -- Lou Gehrig's Disease -- buy you can get better,'' said Sisely Jackson, a nurse whose daughter, Siana Sisi Summey, is the team captain for Sagemont volleyball. ``There aren't many cases of it. From the cases diagnosed, you can recover, but you just don't know when.''

Not knowing when made the ordeal even tougher for Andria and her parents.

``We were going around in circles,'' said her mom, Rita Fernandez. ``We never left her alone, but it was like being in a whirlwind. To not know was the most difficult, but the doctors, nurses and staff were so phenomenal.''

GBS is a progressive symmetrical paralysis (loss of reflexes), usually beginning in the legs and moving upward to the face. The extent of recovery varies for each -- depending on age, physical condition, mental toughness, faith and that unknown factor.

Andria is young, athletic and mentally tough. She also has friends.

``Most people get upset about things, but I am sarcastic,'' Andria said, ``and my friends know that, so they were sarcastic with me, saying how they couldn't believe I've gone so long without talking and how I could not hit them back.

``They treated me like nothing was wrong, and that helped me. I didn't need people crying over me. Going through all this... having friends is so important.''

Andria, a Pembroke Pines resident, had lingering flu like symptoms in August 2008. So medical staff administered a blood test, revealing mononucleosis.

(GBS is not associated with a fever, but any virus can trigger it.)

Then it got worse.

She lost feeling in her legs, and her motor skills began deteriorating.

``Right before she got sick, we became friends,'' said Summey, a junior. ``At school one day, she mentioned to a friend and I that she couldn't feel her legs. It was traumatic, and the next day she was in the hospital.''

Andria was rushed to Memorial Miramar hospital where the doctor scanned a book of illnesses and found the disease. She immediately transported her to Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital in Hollywood.

``I'm not too good with that, and it took me a while to visit her at the hospital,'' Summey said. ``I was messaging her, and then I went there. I just balled when I saw her.''

A then freshman at Sagemont, Andria could not enjoy her first year of high school. She was bed ridden. She could not move nor speak. She communicated by blinking her eyes and through a dry erase board provided by Boomers coaches Hugo and Terri Jimenez.

Going from 130 to 90, she lost 40 pounds during the process. It took over a month in intensive care before she showed signs of recovery.

The disease began from her legs and moved up through her body. In remission, it started from the top and worked down. It was a slower process of recovery for Andria.

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