Final Draft Feature Story

The cold lifeless air in a bland room with no way to communicate or even move. This is what Enrico Rizzo went through when he was 56 years old. Through this whole experience he still put smiles on other people’s faces.

One day Rizzo woke up with tingling in his feet and he didn’t think anything of it until a couple weeks later when the tingling moved up to his legs.

“No one really knows why I got Guillain Barre. I recently had a foot operation that could have affected my nerves,” Rizzo said.

Guillain Barre Syndrome is when someone’s immune system attacks the nerves and they lose all feeling in their body parts. Many things can cause Guillain Barre such as the flu, an operation, and more.

“It was a Sunday morning and that is when [he] collapsed on the floor. After that I called our friend Fred who is police officer and we asked him what to do,” Enrico’s wife Carol Rizzo said. “Fred then said we needed to call an ambulance. I followed the ambulance all the way to the hospital. I even ran the red lights with them.”

He was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance where he was diagnosed with Guillain Barre Syndrome.

“I remember telling myself that I could not cry in front of him or look scared. I just had to pull through and think positive,” Carol said.

Eventually he lost all feeling and he couldn't move. This is when communication was the hardest. Enrico found a way to communicate with his wife, but it didn’t work very well.

“I would communicate with the alphabet board. One time I was trying to spell out ‘pain’ and carol said ‘piano’. She was so excited that her and I were communicating. I was thinking I’m gonna kill her, haha,” Enrico said.

The church community heard what happened to Enrico and they came together and supported him.

“Prayers from others gave me strength while I was in the hospital,” Enrico said.

Enrico wasn’t ever alone in the hospital. When he wasn’t lying in bed, he was in physical therapy or communicating with Carol through the alphabet board.

“I visited him everyday from 10am to 9 pm,” Carol said. “Later when he was getting better I would visit him on my lunch breaks.”

One thing you want to work on is not quoting facts. Use those facts for transitions and let your sources use their quotes to show emotion, feeling and to tell the story.

At the time Enrico’s daughter Donna Barber was living in Florida. She came to visit him a couple times while he was in the hospital.

“I must have been home in Florida when I got a call from my mom, she told me that he was in the hospital, and then she had to go,” Barber said. “The anticipation killed me while I was waiting for a call back.”

Enrico moved his pinkie toe when Barber showed up for the first time. He wanted to show her that he was going to be okay

“I actually got my pinkie to move, I kept trying and eventually my pinky moved,” Enrico said.

He also had other visitors like his brother. Acting like a goofy twin brother, he messed with Enrico just like when they were little.

“My brother came once and he messed up my hair. The worst part was I couldn’t do anything about it,” Enrico said.

Enrico had a tube that helped him eat and another tube that was in his stomach. The tubes were bulky and uncomfortable.

“When I had an eating tube the saliva would go down the wrong pipe and it would feel like if I was choking to death,” Enrico said. “The nurses would say ‘you’re fine’ or ‘you’re not going to die calm down’ they weren't that much of a help.”

Having the Guillain Barre wasn’t the hardest part, recovering from it was the hardest. Physical therapy was two times a day, everyday. After he got out of the hospital he still had to take classes to learn how to write and type.

“I had extensive rehab. I had occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech class, and pool therapy. All of these were very intense,” Enrico said.

Enrico would push himself in therapy which helped him recover quickly. He would have to climb stairs and walk by himself before he could officially finish therapy.

“He would always push himself when he was recovering. I remember grandma telling me that he would do his two steps for the day, then he would say ‘just one more’, and he would then proceed to do one more,” Barber said.

After he fully recovered it was hard to get back into the swing of things. Enrico immediately went home for the first time in months after he got out of the hospital.

“It was a little strange, it was the fact that the hospital became a home is why,” Enrico said.

When Enrico had Guillain Barre he tried his best to think positive, but there was always a little part of him that was scared.

“About 95% of the people recover totally fine from Guillain Barre Syndrome. There are about 5% that do not make it to recovery,” Enrico said.

Enrico fully recovered within a year of being diagnosed with Guillain Barre. He did a fun run that the hospital had every year. Enrico walked the whole course with his son Rick Rizzo wheeling a wheelchair behind him and his daughter walking next to him.

“We did the Helen Hayes one mile run when we were younger. It was so cool to walk with him and see that he was better,” Barber said.  

Carol and Enrico go around motivating others that have Guillain Barre Syndrome. Enrico also wrote a short passage on what it was like to have Guillain Barre and the process of getting better.

“I wrote my story and I formed a group that would go to hospitals,” Enrico said. “I have visited about 100 patients.”

Enrico and Carol both had a hard time talking about this point in their lives. Having Guillain Barre is a very emotional time in someone’s life, and it takes a long time to get better.

“Some things you just don’t want to remember,” Enrico said.