Mayo Clinic Laboratories’ “Life of a Specimen” video series explores the journey patient specimens take as they travel through advanced laboratory testing. We receive patient samples from hospitals and health systems around the world. Whether arriving at our laboratory facilities in Rochester, Minnesota; Jacksonville, Florida; or Scottsdale, Arizona, specimens are treated with the same level of care and respect provided to Mayo Clinic patients. We’re rooted in Mayo Clinic’s primary value that the needs of the patient come first, and it is those patients who drive our commitment to testing excellence.

The first episode in the video series focuses on a real patient whose blood and cerebrospinal cord fluid were tested at Mayo Clinic Laboratories. The answer she received, like countless other patients, saved her life and set her on a path to recovery.

Joy Carol: A passionate optimist

Joy Carol is an 85-year-old, self-described “happy person.” Unfailingly hopeful and always curious, Joy’s thirst for knowledge is matched only by her zest for life. Known as the “energizer bunny” in her retirement community of Penney Farms, Florida, Joy’s days are a patchwork of activities, hobbies, service, and friends. The vibrant life Joy has built for herself in Florida is a stark contrast to the small, frightening space she occupied 10 years earlier.

In 2013, Joy, who lived in New York City at the time, was on holiday in Greece when she experienced a weightiness in her body.

“We used to go down this wonderful, very steep cliff to this gorgeous, impeccable beach and beautiful water,” Joy says. “But all of a sudden, I found my legs were very heavy. I couldn’t swim like I did. Getting out of the water was a challenge — I had to almost crawl out of the water.”

Joy thought she must be tired from her travels, but deep down she knew something was not quite right.

That heaviness Joy felt quickly morphed into something more menacing, and upon returning home to New York City, Joy began to fall — at home, on the street, in the subway. Next came the stiffness. First in her legs, then her shoulders, and eventually her mouth. Then she began losing weight. In just a few weeks, 35 pounds disappeared from her already slim frame.

“I couldn't move, I had to be lifted out of bed, I couldn't get to the bathroom. I could barely eat,” Joy says.

Joy was no stranger to medical crises. In her life, she’s had several close calls with death, including surviving a brain tumor and an airplane crash. Joy’s recovery from those near-death experiences was rooted in information and sound medicine. But in New York, as Joy’s situation worsened and the outlook became grim, answers were elusive.

“They ran every test in the world; that took place over just a few weeks,” Joy says. “I think I must have had at least 14 MRIs on different parts of my body. The city that knows everything, they could not figure out what I had.”

An unfamiliar, frightening existence

For Joy, living in the unknown was among the most difficult aspects of her decline.

“It's really difficult to keep hope going when you're faced with uncertainty,” she says. “That's probably why I like to know what I'm facing. It's better to know than not to know.”

Despite the unknown, Joy clung to a thread of hope.

“When I was close to dying in New York, the doctors came in and said, ‘How come you’re still smiling, why are you so happy?’ and I said, ‘There is still hope, I am still here’ — I was sure there was something left for me to do.”

As Joy’s medical saga continued and she remained bed-bounded in the hospital, additional physicians joined her medical team. One young neurologist brought a fresh perspective and commitment to save Joy’s life.

“It was amazing that I stumbled across a big gift — it was my neurologist, a young woman from Brooklyn originally, Dr. Rebecca Fisher, who said, ‘You’re dying. We all know that, but I am not going to let you die,’” Joy says. “She was smart enough to say, ‘I’m sending your blood and everything out to all the good research laboratories and somebody is going to tell us what you’ve got.’”

A quest for medical answers

Like many journeys, the journey of Joy’s specimen to Mayo Clinic Laboratories was sparked by a question — a need for clarity about her situation.

“You’ve got to ask the question, right?” says Joy’s Mayo Clinic physician Kurt Jaeckle, M.D., emeritus professor of neurology. “If you don’t think about the test and order it, you don’t find the answer. Fortunately, someone did that, sent the blood specimen to Mayo Clinic where it was tested and lo and behold, eureka!”

The movement disorders test performed on Joy’s blood sample in Mayo Clinic’s clinical autoimmunology laboratory provided lifesaving insight that enabled a complete reversal of her medical condition, Dr. Jaeckle says.

That answer came not a moment too soon.

“I would not be here today, that is for sure, if it weren’t for Mayo Clinic, that diagnostic laboratory in Rochester, Minnesota,” Joy says.

Learn more about the insightful journey taken by millions of patient specimens each year by watching the second episode of “Life of a Specimen,” and view the rest of Joy’s journey later in the series.