At 17, Jyla Micael Erandio was living in a whirlwind.  A high school student with a passion for sports, she had a non-stop schedule. But in August 2022, her life took a drastic turn when she was diagnosed with viral meningoencephalitis. What followed was a harrowing journey of illness, recovery, and a renewed perspective on faith, family, and sport. 
Before her illness, Jyla was a passionate multisport athlete who played soccer, basketball, futsal, and a myriad of other activities. At a young age, she was already earning accolades in sport. She started playing for the Edmonton Scottish Angels at age 12, making her the youngest player in the Alberta Soccer Major League. In 2019, she represented Alberta in the Western Canada Summer Games. Three years later and just a few short weeks before her illness, she played for Team Alberta in the 2022 Canada Summer Games. All this while she juggled the daily challenges of a high school student at the same time. 

"If I had to describe my pre-illness self in one word, it would be chaotic," she reflects. Her life was a series of late nights and early mornings filled with practice, schoolwork, and family time, often leaving little room for anything else. While faith was important to her family, it was also something to be left on the back burner if needed.  

However, all that changed when Jyla began experiencing painful symptoms that her doctor initially attributed to cramps or other minor issues. But her condition worsened, leading her parents to seek emergency care. "I went from feeling perfectly fine to being unable to walk properly in a matter of days," she recalls. After a week in the hospital and a series of tests all came back negative, a spinal tap revealed an alarming number of white blood cells in her spinal fluid, confirming the diagnosis of meningoencephalitis.  

Meningoencephalitis is a life-threatening illness where the tissue protecting the spinal cord and brain from injury becomes inflamed. It can be caused by viral infections that spread to the nervous system. In severe cases, as many as 70% of people will develop brain damage, neurological disorders or become comatose. 

With nothing to be done but to hope her body would fight off the infection, she was sent home. During this time, her parents spent as much time at home caring for her as possible, with no idea when or if their daughter would recover. Much of Jyla's experience comes secondhand from her parents, as she doesn't remember anything of this period herself. "I didn't remember my mom, I didn't remember who I was or where I was," she said.  

For a whole month, the family lived in uncertainty and fear. On Sunday, October 1, 2022, her parents brought her to their church and asked the priest to give her a blessing. On October 2nd, Jyla woke up and asked her dad what they were doing for the day. "I just snapped out of it. I knew who my parents were and felt like myself again," she said.  

This experience transformed her relationship with faith. "I had treated God like an option before, but now I realized He was essential to my life," she explains. Jyla's renewed commitment to prayer and spirituality became a cornerstone of her recovery, helping her navigate the emotional and physical challenges ahead.   

The road forward was not easy. While she had fought off the infection and returned to lucidity, recovery would still take time. She had lost nearly 30 pounds over the course of the month, struggled to perform basic motor tasks, and had missed a significant portion of school.  

To go from being a physically literate young adult used to having deft control over her body, to someone who couldn't so much as dribble a ball, was a huge adjustment. It was hard for her to accept this had happened. She had lost a whole month of her life and come back only to find her life radically changed, with challenge after challenge ahead of her.  

Academics wise, her grades slipped with the late start and neural effects leftover from her illness. "I went from being in Grade 12 to doing Grade 11 work," she recalls. She also attended rehab sessions at Glenrose Hospital, where the full scope of her limitations and setbacks were laid before her. It was a demoralizing experience that often left her feeling acutely aware of everything she could no longer do.  

Jyla found motivation in the support of her family. Her father encouraged her to return to the sport she loved, taking her to practice at a local facility. "He never rushed me, just encouraged me to try," Jyla says. He set lofty goals for her, such as 5km runs, to prove she was more capable than she thought.  

Equally important to her motivation was the belief that she survived for a reason and that all challenges that come to her are ultimately to help rather than to hurt. To stop playing would be to lose a core part of herself. During especially tough days, she would use this belief to give herself the strength to continue on. 

Over the next months, she returned to her club team, where she was met with overwhelming support from teammates who missed her. Her incredible determination brought her back to a full recovery as she continued on in club sport, and she went on to play for the MacEwan Griffins last year before transferring to NAIT. Jyla now plays for the Ook's soccer team as a forward. 

Jyla's experiences have reshaped her view on life and sport, bringing her a new sense of peace and an uplifting outlook. "I've never taken anything for granted, but this made me appreciate life even more," she reflects.

She is especially grateful that this experience happened because it brought her and her family closer to their religion. "It just completely transformed our life in the best way possible." She and her family now pray more often - when they wake up, before they eat, before they go to work – and she has delved into reading Scripture to further her spiritual education. 

She also learned to focus on the process rather than just the outcome. "If I'm not playing well today, that's okay; I can improve tomorrow," she says, a mantra that underscores her extraordinary resilience. 

Jyla's journey is a reminder of the powerful things we are capable of when presented with life's most unexpected and daunting challenges. Her story embodies the belief that with perseverance and a strong sense of purpose, anything is possible.