Washington Redskins Cheerleader Suffers Dystonia From Flu Shot

[musiklover]

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.

http://www.theautismnews.com/2009/10/15/jenny-mccarthy-jim-carrey-reach-out-to-desiree-jennings/ great must see video

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.

[Lacie, BSN, RN]

Thank you for your story as I also take various supplements in lieu of vaccines for these very reasons. I just watched this story this evening in relation to the young lady and was astounded of what I saw. I am having issues with those pushing mandatory vaccinations as I believe it is a choice. Granted children are unable to decide therefore as parents we must but I do beleive we should research and attempt to be very informed before making these decisions. With the increase of conditions such as these and also the increase of autism with theory of possible relation to vaccinations I sometimes wonder. The only time I have ever been ill flu related was when I had the swine flu vaccination in 1976 of which more people died from the vaccination then the flu. I almost died and was hospitalized as a result of side effects from the vaccine. I have never had the "flu" and also havent had a flu vaccination since. I take Vit D daily and also l-lysine (during flu season), I also take vit B12 injections faithfully. Most of all, I wash my hands alot lol. Soap and water sometimes can be the best medicine of all :)

[I love my cat!]

My sister is a PT in CA. Last night over dinner she told me that there is a young woman coming into her PT office who also got dystonia from the flu shot.

Really, really sad. This young woman would be a healthy and active young woman today had it not been for that 1 shot. The woman said she should have taken her chances and just risked getting the flu and fighting it (no matter how bad it got.....even death) rather than living like she has to live.

So depressing.

[musiklover]

It is really sad that we are only just now realizing what side effects all these additives in our vaccinations like mercury(or Thimerosal) are having on people. At least researchers are finally starting to connect the dots with some of these serious neurological effects. Maybe it will make drug companies look at their additives and they will try to formulate a safer additive/preservative for vaccinations. Like I said before, vaccinations are truly beneficial to so many people but you really do have to weigh the benefits.

Some of us have had serious adverse reactions like my daughter who will have to live with her dystonia for the rest of her life and it may progress to other parts of her body. Many will probably read this and say, "Those are the risks that you take with any vaccination." But what if it were your child? What would you say then? That's why I would never make any flu or swine flu vaccination mandatory for any health care worker. Regardless of how "safe" they tell you the vaccine is, there is still the risk of Guillain Barre or other neurological disorders and I would never take that choice away from anyone.

We are so quick to go for the quick fix and not think outside the box. We really underestimate the value of vitamin supplements as a first line defense against the flu(outside the obvious hand-washing/sanitizing). I was absolutely amazed when I read studies at how effective Vit D was at fighting viral upper respiratory tract illnesses and general immune system support. Recently, there has been an explosion of studies done on how beneficial Vit D is to our body from treating HTN to Breast Cancer and how detrimental it is when our body is deficient. There are new articles every day. All you have to do is google Vitamin D and see what comes up.....Last month friends of ours in Texas had the Swine Flu and their physician put them on large doses of Vit D and Vit C as a treatment and they only had symptoms for 1-2 days-kids included. It was pretty amazing how quickly they recovered.

[lamazeteacher]

Dystonia has been recognised as a disease, not a symptom; and upon googling that, I found no connection with any vaccine. The article about the cheerleader gave no medical references for the assumption that her condition resulted from her recently taken flu vaccine. That seriously downgrades this thread, I'm afraid.

The anecdotal reference to Vits D and C in post #2, didn't help bring a ring of authenticity for me. I was put on an increased dose of Vit D 2 years ago when I saw a new doctor who had my level of that vitamin tested, and it was found to be low. However the new focus on Vit D hasn't given a dose range for physicians to recommend, so he told me that 2,000u QD would be good, probably. I took that for a year, and the level wasn't checked again to see if complete absorption of it occurred.......

When I was a student nurse, we studied mercury (I can't remember why), fooling around with the liquid silver drops of it with our hands. Nothing terrible happened as a result of that, but then, we didn't drink it....... or inject it...... Whenever a glass thermometer broke, we considered the broken glass portion a greater danger than the mercury that spilled on the floor....... but what did we know, in the '50s. I've probably had more mercury injected into me in all the vaccines I've gotten in my lifetime, than people who receive them now......

They did leave us in the O.R. holding patients in place as X-Rays were taken, and many of us have had fertility difficulties........ but maybe that was caused by the vaccines. We did get BCG scratched onto our backs, if we tested neg for Tb. Life is full of unexpected consequences of actions taken without the time that is required to study them. So we're faced with several possibilities here, but no concrete data.

[Student4_life]

and even if it was the vaccine that caused the dystonia, isn't the side effect on one person kind of small compared to the population that doesn't die because of the flu?

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

per news segment shown, ten days after getting the flu shot she reports having the flu , her health spirialed downward and subsequently developed dystonia.

one case reported[2] involves a woman who developed dystonia 10 days after a regular flu shot. however, dr. leigh vinocur from the university of maryland medical system stated on the october 16, 2009, airing of "the o'reilly factor" on fox news that this case was psychogenic and neurologists were using it as an example of psychogenic dystonia.[3]

http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m/26952743/flu-shot-fears.htm#q=vinocur

the most common flu complications include viral or bacterial pneumonia, muscle inflammation (myositis), infections of the central nervous system and pericarditis (the sac around the heart). 36,000 + people die of the flu each year. numerous news links posted @ allnurses showing that more young children and pregnant women are dying from flu this year in us; those having severe complications had no prior major illnesses.

possibly the flu shot saved her life, but the flu itself altered it.

[wowza]

Granted children are unable to decide therefore as parents we must but I do beleive we should research and attempt to be very informed before making these decisions. With the increase of conditions such as these and also the increase of autism with theory of possible relation to vaccinations I sometimes wonder.

The paper that "linked" vaccines to autism was an epidemiologic paper with insufficient numbers of subjects. It was poorly designed, never showed causation yet claimed to do so. Because of this it was subsequently retracted by all of its authors but 1. Much larger studies in regions with the best medical reccords dating back decades (sweeden, UK) shows absolutely NO LINK between autism and vaccines.

We are so quick to go for the quick fix and not think outside the box. We really underestimate the value of vitamin supplements as a first line defense against the flu(outside the obvious hand-washing/sanitizing).

Last month friends of ours in Texas had the Swine Flu and their physician put them on large doses of Vit D and Vit C as a treatment and they only had symptoms for 1-2 days-kids included. It was pretty amazing how quickly they recovered.

First, hand washing does little to protect you if you are exposed to someone with the flu. The flu is spread by droplet nuclei which means that someone coughs, sneezes or just breathes out the virus and you are infected by breathing it in. You can wash your hands all you want but you will still inhale the virus.

The vitamin D research on the flu is spotty. There has been an association between low vitamin D levels higher risk of contracting the flu. Some researchers are saying this explains why the flu is seasonal. People make less Vit D in the winter. There is also some evidence that giving vitamin D may make the illness less severe but that too does not have great evidence.

Despite this use of Vit D, over 200 people have died since September from H1N1 and THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT SUPPLEMENTING WITH VIT D WILL PREVENT THE FLU or is an adequate alternative to vaccination.

This is directed to everyone on this board: Please do not use anectdotal evidence of unproven preventative measures or of suspected poor reactions with the vaccine to keep health care providers from getting vaccinated. They need to get vaccinated.

-Wowza

[musiklover]

I don't believe that I ever said Dystonia was a symptom. I was merely using a newspaper headline for my thread posting. Having dealt personally the last 4 years with my daughter I think that I would be at least a little bit informed about the neurological disorder that it is. There is not a wealth of information out there on it because it is a relatively rare disorder and I know that in our case as in others it was misdiagnosed as seizures.

Of course you're not going to find specific documented information about dystonia being linked to vaccinations because again the population is so small that there hasn't been enough research done on it. But it doesn't change what happened to people like my daughter or this cheerleader or all those that they are now starting to link to autism. How many years did they deny the possibility of a link to autism? By the way, the article did mention that doctors at Johns Hopkins thought her dystonia was caused by "a reaction the the flu shot"-poorly worded imho. I'd be interested to see the full report.

I have nothing against vaccinations. In fact, I am all for them. I feel that they are greatly beneficial. I just posted this to bring awareness about the potential for serious complications after vaccinations. Sorry if I seem touchy about this as it is very personal to me.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

This thread addresses this. The numbers are simply not there. The CDC has THREE cases of ALL flu shots linked to dystonia. Over a billion shots since 1991. I am not convinced that the flu shot gave her this.

https://allnurses.com/pandemic-flu-forum/tracking-vaccine-injuries-431724.html

[Lacie, BSN, RN]

in relation to vit d and flu which is currently under study:

http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/research/canada-examines-vitamin-d-for-swine-flu-protection

[*ac*]

in relation to vit d and flu which is currently under study:

http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/research/canada-examines-vitamin-d-for-swine-flu-protection

this is a biased article from a company that sells supplements.