Melissa Ellingson Recovering From Encephalitis
Reporter, KPHO.com
PHOENIX — Phoenix resident Melissa Ellingson said tetanus and flu shots she received this summer nearly cost her her life.“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.
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“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 Ellison 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.â€Â