A US woman suffering from seizures, hallucinations and paranoia for more than two months finally found relief after doctors discovered a massive growth on her ovary which had triggered a rare auto-immune disease in her brain.

Lorina Gutierrez, of New Mexico, was even admitted to a psychiatric ward after she became delusional and turned violent, news outlet SWNS reported.

“I was so scared; it was like she was possessed,” Lorina’s husband Stephen Gutierrez said.

“The night after she came home from the ER we were up the whole night.

“She couldn’t sleep and she was just talking gibberish.”

According to Mr Gutierrez, his wife’s rambling made no sense and became rapidly more insistent.

“She kept saying, ‘We need to get out of here, we need to leave.’” he said.

“She kept getting up and trying to leave the house”.

Mr Gutierrez said doctors asked if his wife had been drinking or using drugs, suggesting that Lorina might be experiencing a nervous breakdown or depression.

“During her psychiatric consultation she took a swing at me and we had to hold her down. It was so out-of-character,” Mr Gutierrez said.

“It was then she was admitted to the psychiatric hospital. At one point I threw a little bit of holy water on her.

“Afterwards, my family told me they wouldn’t have been surprised if her head started spinning after I did that.”

Eventually, Ms Gutierrez lost the ability to talk, walk or eat independently, and was not responding to treatment.

The 39-year-old was then transferred to Presbyterian Hospital, where doctors diagnosed her with anti-NMDA receptor limbic auto-immune encephalitis, an auto-immune disease that causes the immune system to attack the brain, making it swell.

According to The Encephalitis Society, the disorder typically affects women more commonly than men, and once it is diagnosed doctors can then look for an underlying tumour as the root cause.

Ms Gutierrez had developed the disease as a response to a 15x15cm tumour on one of her ovaries.

She was given high doses of steroids and plasmapheresis (plasma exchange) in an attempt to clear her body of the antibodies that had been attacking both the tumour and her brain.

“Over the course of three months I underwent speech, physical and occupational therapy but I don’t remember much of it,” Ms Gutierrez said.

“It’s a blur. Right now I’m in remission but I could relapse at any time. It’s not curable — it’s only treatable.”

This article originally appeared on Fox News and was reproduced with permission