Locked In Silence

Locked In Silence

- James Hanman, Laura Abernethy, Emily Jefferies

What left Klaudia Rachwal, 26, from Dublin, trapped in her own body?

Jumping up to reach the ball, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my head.

It was September 2015 and I was training with my volleyball team.

As the headache worsened, my body started to feel weak.

Then my hand dropped and I could barely move.

‘I’ll call an ambulance,’ my coach said, clocking me.

When it arrived, my symptoms had gone, but I couldn’t stop vomiting.

At the hospital, tests came back clear.

‘It’s probably just stress,’ a doctor said.

A few weeks on, I flew to Poland with my then-boyfriend to visit family.

A week after, I was tidying up when my arm went numb.

‘Here, lie down,’ my boyfriend advised.

But an hour on, I couldn’t move at all. By the time medics arrived,