By Julia Prodis Sulek | jsulek@sanjosemercurynews.com

SAN JOSE -- One day, Tessa Gallo was a typical sixth-grader, performing in school plays, running on the track team, goofing around with her two sisters and giggling with girlfriends at sleepovers.

The next, said her mother, Teresa, "She was psychotic and mentally retarded."

In bizarre and frightening scenes, Tessa acted as frantic as a caged animal, darting out of the family car into traffic, jumping fences and hiding in neighbors' bushes. At times she seemed catatonic, with food falling out of her mouth because she somehow couldn't swallow. She repeated the same few sentences over and over, worried about her braces, wanting to go home.

And finally, she said nothing at all. For nine months, Tessa stopped talking. Not a word.

Doctors diagnosed her with bipolar disorder, prescribed psychiatric drugs that didn't work and sent the San Jose family on a nightmarish odyssey through psych wards, group homes and isolation rooms.

Then, suddenly, more than 10 months into the Gallos' terrifying ordeal, a pair of Stanford University doctors told the family that Tessa wasn't bipolar at all. She was probably suffering from a tragically misdiagnosed condition that mimics mental illness in a way doctors are only starting to understand.

"I've seen cases like this before," Dr. Jennifer Frankovich of Lucile Packard Children's Hospital told the Gallos. "I think I can bring her back."
 

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