at 26 years old, desiree jennings was the picture of health. she's a washington redskins cheerleader and an avid runner. her life changed forever on august 23 when she says she got a seasonal flu shot at a local grocery store.
"i was training for a half marathon then," said jennings, crying. "it just all went so fast."
ten days after receiving the shot, she came down with the flu. after that, her health spiraled downwards. she started passing out and had to be hospitalized twice.
"we went to an urgent care place and they wouldn't even let her get out of my truck because she was seizing in the back so bad, so they called an ambulance immediately," says her husband, brendan jennings.
doctors at fairfax inova and johns hopkins diagnosed her with a rare neurological disorder called dystonia. they think it was caused by a severe reaction to the flu shot.
our six year old daughter was diagnosed with a mild form of dystonia but it took almost 2 years and 2 pediatric neurologists to get the correct diagnosis. her symptoms began shortly after receiving her 6 month vaccinations but at that age it was so difficult to figure out what was going on with her. she was initially misdiagnosed with seizures and when we questioned the link to her vaccinations our concerns were brushed aside. finally, a pediatric neurologist that had recently come from johns hopkins kennedy krieger institute to our area was able to make the diagnosis of dystonia.
vaccinations are very safe for most people and we've had both of our children fully immunized but people also need to remember that there are some serious side effects as well. personally, that is one of the reasons why i and my family will not be getting the swine flu vaccination. we've all been taking vitamin d supplements-read the literature on all the new studies coming out about vitamin d and immune support and how doctors are using it and vitc to actually treat their patients that come down with the swine flu.
Specializes in Pediatric Critical Care, Cardiac, EMS.
Important distinction is that it is a seasonal flu shot, not H1N1. Tragic story.
Our daughter developed cranial nerve VI palsy after her regular immunizations at 18 months. She had gotten her DTaP, her MMR, and her last HiB series.
There is no way of knowing for certain what will happen when we inject attenuated virii or even killed virii particles into individual human bloodstreams. Especially not so many at one time. Yet the alternatives are just as untenable.
My daughter's palsy is resolving. And we will continue to immunize - but one at a time, not in multiple doses. Our pediatrician understands.
And if she had come down with it without the flu shot, we'll never know. I'd like to know all her history for the past few years, to see if it was shot-related or not. Regardless, it is a sad turn in her life.
This is "information?" A gal who developed dystonia 10 days after a flu shot and an anoymous lady in an old fashioned nurse uniform referring to another anonymous person's anonymous husband who developed Guillain-Barre?
Are you kidding me?
Information would be rates of complications, established correlation, correlation coefficients, etc.
I watched the video several times... and I noticed she was able to fix her hair behind her ear when she apparently had no control over her body. I'm not making a judgment, just an observation.
It's weird how walking backwards would suddenly make her arms stop jerking and running would make her able to talk and move normally. Not saying it's not possible, there are all kinds of crazy diseases in this world, but it seems a little odd to me.
ETA: I would be interested to know if there are other people who have dystonia with this particular manifestation.
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nuangel1, BSN, RN
707 Posts
oh my god that poor girl.i don't know what else to say.