Moon Tooth guitarist Nick Lee on the road to recovery after being diagnosed with limbic encephalitis
MASSAPEQUA PARK, N.Y. -- One day, a guitarist from a Long Island metal band was wowing his fans; the next, he was in a medically induced coma.
Doctors were baffled by what was ailing a previously healthy rocker.
CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff spoke with Nick Lee, who is now on the road to recovery after nearly losing it all.
His fingers move with mind-boggling dexterity.
"My parents got me my first guitar when I was 6, and loved it since," Lee said. "Happiness, anger, sadness, it just comes out of it, you know? It's like, things I can't say will come through a guitar."
But suddenly, the music stopped for Lee. He collapsed during rehearsal in July and blacked out.
The 32-year-old lead guitarist of the band Moon Tooth suffered seizures and was placed into a coma for three weeks. Much in the months leading up to it, he doesn't remember.
"The last two shows that Moon Tooth played, I don't remember at all," he said. "I looked through my phone at pictures and was like, I had to ask my fiancée, like, 'What happened this day? What is this?'"
"He was unable to form sentences ... Just sounds, they weren't even words," his fiancée, Lianna Halko, said.
Doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong.
"He was tested for a million different things and it was just negative, negative, negative. This is a healthy 32-year-old vegetarian. What in the world is happening?" Halko said.
Band members went public to explain the unexplainable, telling fans in a video, "It's not really good right now. He's still battling."
After 34 days in the hospital, Lee now has hope and a diagnosis -- limbic encephalitis, a condition that is often overlooked because can begin with just strange behavior.
"He was very irritable. He was angry. He will repeat things over and over," said Dr. Simona Proteasa, a neurologist with North Shore University Hospital. "Patients, if they are not treated, they can end up with permanent damage to the brain ... In the long run, he is going to be off medication, and he's going to have absolutely a normal life."
Music to his ears, but Lee must relearn walking, talking and songs that came so naturally to him.
"They brought me a guitar eventually. The first time I picked it up, I couldn't do the most basic thing that I show my students, and that was crushing," he said.
It's still not clear what sparked the condition, but he suspects touring burnout took a toll.
"Waking up, drink ten cups of coffee, teach ten students, not eating," Lee said.
The ordeal has been a wake-up call for a soft-spoken rocker with a humble heart.
"I really think that I can be a happier person and a better guitar player and make people in my life happier," Lee said.
He's looking forward to more harmony between his music and his health.
Lee and his fiancée were scheduled to be married in late September, but they're putting the celebration off for a year while he recovers.
