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BRUNSWICK — Approximately eight months have passed since the symptoms of a rare autoimmune disease landed Caroline Hinckley, now 17, in the emergency room at Maine Medical Center in Portland and down a long road to diagnoses, treatment and painful baby steps toward recovery. In November 2010, an array of changing and rapidly worsening symptoms that included loss of feeling and movement from her neck down, led to Hinckley being diagnosed with Devic’s Disease (Neuromyelitis Optica) — an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system.Perplexed and terrified by the teen’s progressively deteriorating condition, her family and physicians turned to Dr. Edward Fels, an insightful pediatric rheumatologist who had previously encountered a case of the rare disease and recognized its symptoms in Hinckley.

His intervention placed Hinckley on the slow road to recovery, and Hinckley’s mother, Kristie, said she thanks God every day for Fels.

After undergoing months of treatment for Devic’s Disease and rehabilitation, Hinckley said Monday she is now on much less medication. In late February, after eight weeks at the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital ward at Maine Med, she was transported to a rehabilitation facility in Boston for seven weeks of physical and occupational therapy.

In March, she moved to the New England Rehabilitation Hospital of Portland, so she and her parents — who have constantly been by her side — could be closer to home.

Within about a week and a half at the New England facility, Caroline stood on her own for the first time, according to Kristie.

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