For two weeks Desiree Jennings was a medical mystery among doctors, physiologists and physical therapists alike. Not a single medical professional could diagnose her sudden, extreme symptoms.
Jennings, who was working for AOL, got her swine flu vaccination as a preventative measure to avoid getting sick. After she received the shot, however, she experienced the opposite reaction. She began vomiting and had a high fever, both of which are flu like symptoms. Next, her body began to ache and she started blacking out. Finally, at Johns Hopkins University, a doctor recognized her case and provided the diagnosis: dystonia.
This news was crushing to Jennings’ family, who hoped that she might have had Lyme disease or another curable illness. Dystonia is a neurological disease that is incredibly rare and has no known cure. Unfortunately, patients have no idea that they have it until the disease is triggered by a reaction to a specific medication. In Jennings’ case, the H1N1 vaccination acted as a catalyst to her dystonia.
After the diagnosis, Jennings’ life has been severely altered. Her former aspirations to become a Redskins cheerleader are long gone, as she now suffers from violent muscle spasms and distorted speech. She can no longer walk forward without experiencing these symptoms. The truly rare portion of Jennings’ medical case is that she has the ability to run forward perfectly, and her speech is normal while she is running. Her muscle spasms also disappear when she is walking backwards, which is her preferred form of movement around the house.
After hearing her tragic story, many AHS students have expressed concern over receiving the swine flu vaccination.
“That’s some scary stuff,” sophomore Jackson Hannam said, “I think I would rather just get sick than risk ending up like her. How do they know that something like that won’t happen to another person who gets the shot?”
Junior Meriem Khadraoui said, “That story of what happened to her is so sad. But the doctors said that is was because she had like a rare brain disease, so I’d be nervous about getting one, but I probably still would because I don’t want to get sick.”
In an attempt to reassure the public, doctors have maintained that what happened to Desiree Jennings is by no means a common side effect of the swine flu vaccination. The chances of any person having dystonia are truly a million to one. Therefore, despite her recent diagnosis, medical professionals are encouraging the public to receive a swine flu vaccination if they have the opportunity because the benefits, they insist, outweigh the risks.
