2 doctors told him he had a fatal disease and wouldn't live until Christmas. They were wrong

A Winnipeg man who was misdiagnosed with a fatal disease by two different doctors says anybody believed to have a life-threatening condition should be sent to a specialist in the field for final determination.

A neurologist at Sunnybrook Hospital agrees.

Fredrik Bergstrom, 51, went to see his family physician in March after developing a limp and numbness in one foot for no apparent reason. 

"He did a 10-minute examination and then he literally teared up and hugged me and he said, 'Fredrik, this is ALS,'" Bergstrom said.

He was told the disease was advanced and would progress rapidly. 

"We're at the end of the line," he recalled his doctor saying.

Shocked, Bergstrom immediately called his wife and told her to come home from work. He said the two cried through the night. 

"It was just absolutely devastating," he said. 

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, progressively paralyzes people because the brain is no longer able to communicate with the muscles of the body.

Over time, as the muscles break down, people lose the ability to walk, talk, eat, swallow, and eventually breathe.

There is no cure. 

The disease runs in his family. His younger brother died from it more than a decade ago, and his father passed away from it two years ago, Bergstrom said. 

Bergstrom went to see a another doctor at the same facility three days later for a second opinion, and says that doctor agreed with his family doctor's diagnosis. 

"He used words such as 'catastrophical neurological breakdown' and 'rapid progression ALS,'" he said. "So now not only am I dying, I'm dying in the fast lane. Everything is moving incredibly fast."