25-Year-Old Virginia Woman Paralyzed after Seasonal Flu Shot

[rambone]

Of course, the CDC cannot comment and has no knowledge of anything like this happening. Deny, deny, deny.

How can people make informed decisions about taking vaccines when the Government helps cover for them, and never does any investigations or studies on the negative effects?

Woman Says Flu Shot Triggered Rare Disorder

ASHBURN, Va. (WUSA) -- Many of you have been lining up to get the seasonal flu shot. But there is one Ashburn woman who wants you to hear her story before you do.

Desiree Jennings is trapped in her body. Intellectually she's all there, but her muscles are fighting each other. She's been diagnosed with dystonia, an extremely rare and debilitating neurological disease.

She says after taking the seasonal flu shot she witnessed her body's rapid decline. She doesn't know what else it could be but she has serious questions about the seasonal flu shot. The Centers for Disease Control cannot comment on her case.

Desiree was a healthy 25-year-old up until two months ago, working at AOL and as a Redskins cheerleading ambassador.

But her world has now been turned upside down. Desiree has trouble talking and speaks in a staccato rhythm.

She says, "It's a battle every day because when I wake up I think it's going to be normal, but then I'm quickly reminded that's not going to be the case."

She says 10 days after getting a seasonal flu shot at a Reston grocery store in August, and on her second wedding anniversary, she got sick. First, she came down with flu like symptoms, then convulsions and blacking out.

She's seen more than 60 doctors. She says all of them were stumped until Johns Hopkins diagnosed her with dystonia. She believes her seasonal flu shot triggered it.

Desiree says, "Nothing else explains such a fast moving neurological damage. The medical hospitals ruled out everything, CAT scans normal, blood normal, MRI normal. The only thing that explains it is the shot caused the neurologic damage."

She says it is a strange disorder where muscles work against each other. She can't walk forward, only backwards. She can run, but she can't stop without help. She can whisper but has difficulty speaking. Noises can cause convulsions. Her resting heart rate is 90. When she runs her blood pressure dips to 58. She gets exhausted walking a few steps but she could run for hours.

Drugs such as valium and klonopin that make other people sleepy give her energy for hours. Simple exercises become nearly impossible.

Desiree's husband, Brendan, says, "It gets worse everyday. It's heartbreaking to see."

Desiree says the disease is irreversible. Once she loses an ability it doesn't come back. She says there are only three ways you can get dystonia as an adult and they include head trauma, drug use, and poisoning. She says she has not experienced any of that.

There is no cure. One in a million are diagnosed with the disease. She says she just wants healthy people to talk to their doctors and weigh the risk.

While the Centers for Disease Control cannot comment directly on this case, they say they have no knowledge of a link between the seasonal flu shot and dystonia.

 

[rambone]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8riAeGh48U"]YouTube - Woman Disabled by THIS YEARS FLU SHOT (10 days AFTER vaccination )[/ame]


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mScGC7nFDxM[/ame]

 

[Blue Tile Spook]

FOX had some doc on this morning yelling about everyone needing to get their flu shot and how if a person had any hesitations that they were just silly.

FOX did show the results of a non-scientific poll that showed a jump in the number of people that now do not trust the flu vaccine not to have serious side effects. It was ~50% of people distrusting it compared to ~40% just a month ago not trusting it.

 

[RachelMarie]

Wow. That poor girl. All I keep thinking is that she is MY age, this could happen to anyone. SO sad. Prayers to her and her family!

 

[redneckmedic]

Just so it's said, a very small % of the population has serious reactions to everything we take everyday, form Aspirin, to Anesthesia meds. This should be expected.

However, one more reason for me to NOT be getting the H1N1... probably ever!

 

[Jay]

When it's my time to go, it's my time to go......... but I"m not in that big of a rush to get there....

 

[haldir]

Kansas reports woman’s death due to H1N1 flu virus
-
Abilene Reflector-Chronicle
Friday, Oct 16, 2009

As Kansas officials are reporting the first H1N1 flu death of a Kansas with no serious prior medical problems, Dickinson County health officials are encouraging anyone with flu-like symptoms to remain home and try to limit their exposure to others.

“Dickinson County health officials monitoring the cases of influenza across the county continue to receive reports of increases in illness related to the flu, to include strep throat, colds, and the normal flu like symptoms,” said Dickinson County administration director Brad Homman, speaking for the county health department.

“Numerous reports of positive tests for the flu continue to be received, but have not been confirmed as H1N1. Testing for H1N1 is only being done in hospitalized patients, however health officials are confident that many of the cases being reported are in fact H1N1.”

On Wednesday, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment report the death of a 50-year-old Kansas City area woman from H1N1.

While the woman’s name was not released, KDHE officials said the woman is the seventh person in the state whose has died from the pandemic virus. Unlike others, she had no serious prior medical problems.

 

[haldir]

Pediatric H1N1 deaths already rival seasonal flu total

Maryn McKenna Contributing Writer
Oct 9, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – Seventy-six children and teenagers have died of H1N1 flu since the novel strain emerged in April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today, representing both an increase of 19 in a week and a total that rivals the child deaths for entire past flu seasons.

And with the pandemic strain becoming establishing across the country, widespread in 37 states compared with 27 last week, deaths and case counts are expected to rise.

"In the past 3 years, the total pediatric influenza deaths ranged from 46 to 88," Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a press briefing. "It is only the beginning of October. Of course, the flu season will often last all the way to May, and so it is very early for us to predict exactly what is going to happen."

The CDC has only counted pediatric deaths from flu since 2003-04, when an early, harsh flu season killed a number of children in Western states. In the 2008-09 season, which officially ended last weekend, 147 children and teens died from influenza, including the 76 cases attributed to the new flu, according to CDC numbers released Friday.

Up to 30% of the children who died from H1N1 flu had no underlying conditions that would make them vulnerable, and bacterial co-infections were "a very important problem" in that group, Schuchat said, adding that the CDC is alerting clinicians to use antibiotics when bacterial infections are suspected and encouraging use of pneumococcal vaccines to reduce the chance of illness.

Meanwhile, vaccines against both the novel strain and the seasonal flu are moving out across the country, though officials acknowledged that demand is high and the process is not smooth. As of Thursday, manufacturers had produced 6.8 million doses of vaccine against H1N1 flu, of which states have placed orders for 3.7 million, Schuchat said, adding that both numbers are moving targets that shift from day to day.

"We are at a point where we don't have enough vaccine for everybody who wants to be vaccinated today, but we will have enough vaccine in the weeks and months ahead for everybody who wants to be vaccinated," she said. "Where we are right now is that there is probably more demand than supply."

Beginning next week, the CDC will place twice-weekly updates on H1N1 vaccine production and deliveries on its Web site, with one of the updates devoted to a state-by-state breakdown, Schuchat said.

In addition, manufacturers have produced 77 million doses of vaccine against seasonal flu strains, "more than we have ever had at this time of year," Schuchat said. The agency has also been informed of spot shortages of seasonal vaccine but expects that pipeline to fill as well. "More people want it than seem to be able to get it," she said. "It will take several weeks to get the full supply going."

Government researchers also confirmed that a single dose of the new H1N1 vaccine will be enough to produce immunity in most recipients. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, announced in the briefing that follow-up data from a clinical trial show that adults do not gain any increased immune protection from taking a second dose of the vaccine.

In addition, results from a separate trial indicate that it is safe to give both the H1N1 and seasonal injectable vaccines at the same time, in different arms, Fauci said, citing early data from 50 volunteers within an 800-person trial. However, Schuchat added that the government is still cautioning against giving two forms of the nasal-spray vaccines in the same visit.

Clinical trials of the new vaccine in pregnant women are continuing, and new trials of the vaccine in individuals who have asthma and in those who are infected with HIV will begin shortly, Fauci said.

The CDC also said today that:

The agency has found no evidence in its data for the Canadian contention that seasonal flu vaccine makes recipients more vulnerable to H1N1 infection.
No adverse events have been recorded so far among H1N1 vaccine recipients.
Cities and regions that last week reported slight dips in H1N1 flu activity are now seeing the curve climb back up, to higher than it was 2 weeks ago.

 

[redneckmedic]

No adverse events have been recorded so far among H1N1 vaccine recipients.

 

[JetGirl]

When it's my time to go, it's my time to go.....

You need my permission first.

 

[bigus_D]

How many people get the flu each year... how many of them die or have serious problems due to it.

How many get the flu vaccine each year... how many of them die or have serious problems due to it.

I expect these numbers (if available) would reveal some surprising ratios. I expect a fair analysis would clearly demonstrate that the vaccine is much safer than the disease.

 

[Cain71]

Inprisonment in your body from vaccine or death by h1nh? Seems like a crap shoot to me.

 

[JetGirl]

Inprisonment in your body from vaccine or death by h1nh?

Those are the only two choices, huh?

 

[redneckmedic]

Inprisonment in your body from vaccine or death by h1nh? Seems like a crap shoot to me.

Here this is for you, bottoms up, and you can have mine too!

 

[rambone]

H1N1 is survivable, guys. I know somebody who just had it.

Its the flu! Not ebola.

 

[redneckmedic]

H1N1 is survivable, guys. I know somebody who just had it.

Its the flu! Not ebola.

Thats not what the media says!

 

[Blue Tile Spook]

Redneck, I agree that that is not what the media is saying. +1

 

[Bigum1969]

H1N1 is survivable, guys. I know somebody who just had it.

Its the flu! Not ebola.

Not if you have a pregnant wife with twins that are due in 3 1/2 weeks. It's a much more serious situation for my family right now.

 

[wtfd661]

H1N1 is survivable, guys. I know somebody who just had it.

Its the flu! Not ebola.

I suppose you could tell that to the surviving loved ones of those who have died from H1N1.

 

[rambone]

The standard flu kills 36,000 people every single year.

On the radio ten minutes ago, they said 86 people have died of H1N1 in this country so far this year. And it the middle of October. The radio keeps repeating how we all need the vaccine, etc.

Just something to chew on. I'm here to inform. Don't shoot the messenger. Its a personal decision.