The Oscar-nominated US indie-folk artist Sufjan Stevens has announced he is suffering from a serious autoimmune disease.
In an Instagram post, he said he has been diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and is unable to walk. He said symptoms began last month: “My hands, arms and legs were numb and tingling and I had no strength, no feeling, no mobility,” he wrote. After a diagnosis in hospital, he spent two weeks “stuck in a bed, while my doctors did all the things to keep me alive and stabilise my condition. I owe them my life.”
He added that he was now “undergoing intensive physical therapy/occupational therapy, strength building etc to get my body back in shape and to learn to walk again. It’s a slow process, but they say I will ‘recover,’ it just takes a lot of time, patience and hard work. Most people who have GBS learn to walk again on their own within a year, so I am hopeful … I’m committed to getting better, I’m in good spirits, and I’m surrounded by a really great team.”
