TAMPA, Fla. — A five-year-old in Tampa is back home after being hospitalized with encephalitis, a life-threatening inflammation of the brain.
Doctors diagnosed Laine Nipper with a rare autoimmune disorder known as MOGAD.
WATCH: 'Pray for Laine': 5-year-old Tampa girl diagnosed with a rare autoimmune condition
Her mother, Danielle, recalled that her daughter had a playdate on Wednesday. The next day, her child's school called to say Laine had a fever.
The five-year-old then complained of a headache.
"On Friday, she developed a headache, and it just seemed like she had a virus, a normal childhood virus," said Danielle Nipper.
Danielle became concerned when her daughter had a persistent headache. She took Laine to the emergency room on Saturday.
"I just felt like something wasn't right, so I brought her to the ER on Saturday morning," recalled Danielle.
Once in the emergency room, Laine started having seizures.
"Several hours into our visit, she started having seizures so they knew that there was something else going on so that was when they did a CT scan and they figured out that she had some fluid and swelling in her brain," said Danielle.
In October of 2025, doctors diagnosed the five-year-old with MOGAD.
"She was diagnosed with autoimmune encephalitis caused by a rare, neuroautoimmune disease called MOGAD. MOGAD is similar to MS, but the treatment is different," said Danielle.
Her daughter spent three weeks in a medically induced coma. Signs across Tampa Bay asked for prayers for Laine. Tampa Bay 28 first covered the story in November of 2025.
Laine spent about 10 weeks hospitalized in Tampa, including eight weeks in an intensive care unit.
She spent another 13 weeks at a rehabilitation unit in Atlanta.
After being gone for nearly 5 months, her family is finally back home in Tampa.
Laine continues to receive therapy and treatment.
"She is doing therapy every single day so physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, feeding therapy. We do music therapy, aqua therapy as much therapy as possible to try and give her brain the best chance at recovery," said Danielle.
Her family continues to ask for prayers for Laine.
"With a brain injury, there's so much unknown, and that's one of the hard parts. The doctors are hopeful, but we just don't know. Every brain injury is different, but we have a lot of Faith in Laine. She's very strong, and she's a fighter, and so we feel hopeful that she will make a very meaningful recovery," said Danielle.
For more on efforts to help Laine's family, click here.
For updates on Laine's recovery, click here.
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