US diplomat injured in mystery 'brain' attack in China identified

Catherine Werner, 31, a diplomat stationed in southern China, was evacuated to the US in May 2018 after complaining of a mystery illness caused by abnormal sounds and pressure in her apartment in Guangzhou  The mother of the US diplomat who was evacuated from southern China earlier this year after suffering a traumatic brain injury caused by what has been described as a 'health attack' has <a href="http://www.deer-digest.com/?s=revealed">revealed</a> that the damage done to her daughter is most likely permanent. Catherine Werner, a 31-year-old Northeastern University graduate, had been serving in China as a foreign service officer advocating for American business interests in that country. Then in the fall of 2017, her mother tells NBC News Werner began complaining of excruciating headaches, nausea and problems with her memory, vision and balance. 'She's just a shell of what she was,' Laura Hughes, a US Air Force veteran, said of her daughter's appearance during frequent video chats at the time. 'She was ashen. Her complexion was off. She looked very, very fatigued.' Hughes said her daughter started hearing abnormal sounds in her apartment in Guangzhou and feeling waves of unexplained pressure, reminiscent of the mystery illness that affected 26 American diplomats stationed in Havana, Cuba, in 2016 and 2017. <strong>Scroll down for video </strong> Laura Hughes, an Air Force veteran (left), says the health of her daughter (right) started declining last year, with Werner complaining of odd sounds, nausea, headaches and fatigue   Werner initially thought a faulty air conditioner in her apartment (building pictured) was to blame for the odd noises   The incident prompted the United States last year to withdraw more than half of its personnel at the embassy in Havana, which reopened in 2015 as the two nations re-established diplomatic relations that had ruptured in 1961. But Werner initially did not make that connection and attributed her sensations to a malfunctioning air conditioner in her apartment, or <a href="http://www.deer-digest.com/?s=poor%20air">poor air</a> quality in the city. As Werner's health continued to decline, at the urging of her husband <a href="https://linkhay.com/link/2383012/cach-khac-phuc-3-su-co-thuong-gap-voi-dieu-hoa-khong-khi-cua-ban">điều hòa không khí</a> Hughes traveled to China to be with their ailing daughter. Hughes went about buying a new filter for the air conditioner and stocking her daughter's refrigerator with imported food and water, but that did nothing to improve Werner's well-being. <b>Before long, Hughes said she started experiencing strange sounds and pressure herself.</b> ‘We heard a very high-pitched sound in Catherine's bedroom. And we heard a very low, pulsing sound in the living room,' Hughes said. ‘Our heads would pulse. You would feel like you would want to regurgitate. You could become instantly paralyzed, instantaneously fatigued."' The women soon came to believe they were being watched, and at one point Werner's apartment was broken into, according to her mother. When Werner adopted these two dogs, her mother said the pets soon began vomiting blood and shivering in the apartment  Werner and Hughes adopted a pair of dogs - a pug and a white chow chow - in the hope that the pets would help protect them from any intruders. Shortly after, the dogs started showing alarming symptoms, apparently brought on by the sounds and pressure afflicting the human occupants of Werner's home. ‘They would be shivering under the bed when we'd return to the apartment. They would vomit blood,' Hughes said of the pups. On one occasion, Hughes said she found the two dogs standing just outside the living room and staring at something in unison.   On another, Hughes and Werner came home to find the dogs locked in a room they had not been in when Hughes and Werner left the apartment.  After three agonizing months, Hughes said could no longer tolerate the headaches, nausea and dizziness, and returned to the States. She said she begged her daughter to come with her, but Werner did not want to lose her post in the consulate. Ultimately, Werner reported her strange experience to her superiors, who then made the connection between what was happening to the diplomat in Guangzhou and the attacks on the US diplomats stationed in Cuba. Werner underwent a medical examination, the results of which were so alarming that she was evacuated back to the US in May. Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania administered a battery of tests to Werner dubbed HABIT - short for the Havana Acquired Brain Injury Tool - which found that the diplomat had an organic brain injury, as well as balance, hearing, vision and cognitive complications akin to the symptoms of a concussion. Werner in May was evacuated to the US, where doctors diagnosed her with an organic brain injury similar to those suffered by 26 diplomats in Cuba in 2016 and 2017   NBCUniversal Privacy Policy ‘Their findings were the same as they found for the U.S. diplomats from Cuba,' Hughes said. After Werner was airlifted from China, the State Department tested about 300 other foreign officers working in the country and evacuated 15 of them for the purpose of further testing, but so far, Werner remains the sole confirmed case. Hughes, however, says she, too, has been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury that has affected her vision, balance and cognitive function. The Air Force veteran said she sought medical attention after her husband noticed that she could not recall some basic words and even forgot the names of their pets. Both the mother and daughter remain in rehabilitation, and Werner is currently unable to resume her work with the US Department of Commerce, where she has been employed since 2014 after stints at Barclays and Morgan Stanley. Initially, government officials suspected American diplomats had been targeted by some sort of acoustic weapon, although in public senior officials were more cautious, speaking of 'health attacks'. Media reports have suggested that the FBI has not been able to verify any evidence to support the sonic weapon theory. Hughes, who stayed with Werner in China for three months during her health crisis, was also diagnosed with a brain injury that left her with vision, balance and cognitive complications   Scientists familiar with the investigations told NBC News that as of late, they have been looking into the possibility that an electromagnetic weapon, possibly one powered by microwave technology, has been used to harm the diplomats in both Cuba and China. Douglas Smith, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Brain Injury and Repair who studied the Havana cases, said in an interview with CNN in September that microwaves are ‘a main suspect' in causing the brain injuries, but he has not ruled out ultrasound and infrasound as potential culprits. ‘It's almost like a concussion, but without a concussion, meaning that they look like individuals who have persistent concussion symptoms but have no history of head impact,' Smith said of the damage to the victims. The New York Times reported earlier this fall that the microwave weapon would be portable, so that the person or people wielding it could move from place to place and beam microwaves from a handheld device, or from equipment mounted on a vehicle, at diplomats' homes and hotel rooms. <strong><u>Both Cuba and China have strongly denied knowledge of or involvement in any attacks on diplomats.</u></strong> The US embassy issued a health alert to Americans living in China in May, citing the attack on Werner without identifying her by name.  'While in China, if you experience any unusual acute auditory or sensory phenomena accompanied by unusual sounds or piercing noises, do not attempt to locate their source. Instead, move to a location where the sounds are not present,' it said, urging people with medical problems to consult a doctor.  Speaking to NBC News, Hughes said she does not believe American diplomats currently stationed around the world are safe, and she is concerned that what happened to her daughter could happen to someone else.   She also pointed a finger of blame at the State Department, claiming that instead of conducting a transparent investigation, officials have been downplaying the health attacks.  <u><i>'It's devastated our lives,' Hughes said. 'We'll never be the same.' </i></u> A State Department representative stated that the government remains vigilant about any potential threats to US personnel and their families around the globe.