GREAT FALLS — For one Montana family, the road to answers has been long, isolating, and at times, overwhelming.
Brooke Lorang, a 20-year-old Great Falls resident, is one of the few people in the U.S. living with the symptoms of Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome, or MALS—a rare and little-understood illness.
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MALS affects roughly 15 to 34 percent of Americans anatomically, but fewer than 1 percent ever develop the painful symptoms that have derailed Brooke’s life.
For Brooke, those symptoms started with stomach pain and swift, unexplained weight loss. “It causes me to have pain when I eat. So, like, a normal person can eat like a normal adult can eat a meal. I can't even finish a kid's meal before I'm sick,” Brooke explained.
Her parents, Kasey and Jason, watched helplessly as their daughter lost 40 pounds in just six months and became unable to enjoy daily life. “That's when we really, as her parents, were starting to be concerned, like, why are you suddenly dropping all this weight? She'd gotten so skinny and she wasn't able to eat,” Kasey recalled.
But getting a diagnosis proved nearly impossible. In Montana, where rare diseases like MALS are almost never seen, many doctors were left searching for answers too. “The doctors here didn't even know what it was. They had to research it while she was in an appointment with them,” Jason said.
The Lorang family began traveling out of state, going from Utah to Arizona to Colorado, investing thousands of dollars and countless hours in doctor visits, testing, and dead ends.
“It just—it was really hard because we spent so many hours out of our workday at doctor's appointments, and they just kept on giving us the runaround,” Kasey said.
What makes MALS particularly hard to diagnose is its ability to mimic much more common digestive diseases—from celiac disease to gastritis and chronic pancreatitis.
Traditional tests often miss the problem entirely.
“Red sauce, gluten, dairy, basically anything hurts my stomach so they would test me. I've had probably close to almost 50 blood tests just for celiac,” Brooke said.
Brooke finally received the correct diagnosis in late 2024, but her journey is far from over. She now faces major and invasive surgery in Seattle to relieve the artery compression threatening her health.
The family is working tirelessly to raise money to cover her medical and travel costs.
More importantly, they want to raise awareness so other families don’t have to go through what they have.
“A big thing about this story is this might reach somebody that is having the same symptoms as she's having—” Kasey said.
“But not knowing what's going on,” Jason added.
A fundraiser will be held at The Station District (119 River Drive) from 5:30pm to 8pm on Thursday, June 18, 2026. Food and a full bar will be available for purchase. There will also be a silent auction, raffle baskets, and a 50/50 drawing. Click here for more information.
Click here to follow Brooke's journey on Facebook.
