The summer before sixth grade, Sammy, a bright and charming 12-year-old, suddenly began to exhibit disturbing behavior--tics and compulsions that threatened to overwhelm him. He was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette syndrome and told to expect lifelong mental illness and hospitalization. Unwilling to accept that dire prognosis, Sammy's mother, Beth, devoted herself to getting her son back. Alerted to new research into the role of strep infections in sudden-onset OCD in children, her quest threw her into the medical community's raging debate about whether mental illness can be caused by infection. With the battle lines firmly drawn, Beth found two cutting-edge doctors who believed they could fight Sammy's OCD with antibiotics--and they cured him. Now in college, he remains symptom free. Part manifesto, part medical mystery, Saving Sammy is at its heart the empowering and inspiring story of a mother's determination to save her son, take on the medical establishment--and win. The story of one mother's fight against the medical establishment to prove the link between infection-triggered PANDAS and her son's sudden-onset OCD and Tourette syndrome. The summer before entering sixth grade, Sammy, a bright and charming boy who lived on the coast of Maine, suddenly began to exhibit disturbing behavior. He walked and ate with his eyes shut, refused to bathe, burst into fits of rage, slithered against walls, and used his limbs instead of his hands to touch light switches, doorknobs, and faucets. Sammy's mother, Beth, already coping with the overwhelming responsibility of raising three sons alone, watched helplessly as her middle child descended into madness. Sammy was soon diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and later with Tourette syndrome. Unwilling to accept the doctors' prognoses for lifelong mental illness and repeated hospitalizations, Beth fought to uncover what was causing this decline. Beth's quest took her to the center of the medical community's raging debate about whether OCD and Tourette syndrome can be caused by PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections). With the battle lines firmly drawn, Beth searched until she found two cutting-edge doctors who answered that question with a definitive yes. Together, they cured Sammy. Five years later, he remains symptom free.