Woman Blames Tetanus, Flu Shots For Illness

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This was listed under "weird news." Click the link to access the video. I couldn't get it to copy here.

"One in a million." "Smallpox was wiped out." "You don't see much polio these days."

Winnie

http://www.wfsb.com/health/21292164/detail.html

Woman Blames Tetanus, Flu Shots For Illness

Doctor Says Reactions Are Rare

POSTED: 8:35 am EDT October 14, 2009

PHOENIX -- Phoenix resident Ellingson says tetanus and flu shots she received this summer nearly cost her her life, KPHO-TV in Phoenix reported.. “I couldn't talk. I couldn't walk. I couldn't feel my whole body. It was like I had an epidural of something,” Ellingson said. She developed encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, about a month after the two vaccines. At one point, she was so sick she couldn’t swallow and had to have a feeding tube inserted into her throat, she said. “All of my symptoms matched as if I would have been affected by a flu shot or a vaccine,” she said. Dr. Geoffrey Radoff said it is possible Ellingson experienced an extremely rare side effect of the vaccines. "What she had was extraordinarily unusual and rare,” he said. “For reasons that are unknown, we get autoimmune reactions from the vaccine.” Radoff said only a tiny percentage of all patients who receive vaccines react badly, usually experiencing redness or swelling around the site of the injection. He said even fewer patients become as ill as Ellingson. Radoff also said Ellingson’s experience should not dissuade people from getting shots. "Vaccines wiped out smallpox. There's no smallpox. And certainly polio isn't as common now as it was. Vaccines certainly have their place,” he said. After spending close to one month in intensive care, Ellingson is home recovering. She said her bout with encephalitis has left her both tired and weak. To recover, she is going to physical therapy three times a week and taking steroids to stop her immune system from attacking her body. She said she is still shocked that vaccines aimed at keeping her healthy could have cost her her life. "I thought I wasn't going to come out of it,” she said.