Twenty-five-year-old Desiree Jennings was living the life of her dreams. A marketing job at a significant company and a handsome, loving, successful man as her husband were things many girls dream of. Additionally, she also had a few challenging hobbies that distinguished her from the crowd.

Desiree Jennings was a runner and a cheerleading ambassador of the Washington Redskins Football team. But an incident changed her life overnight. A picture of happiness and excellent health was turned into a twisted and stuttering vision of suffering and pain.

Who Is Desiree Jennings?

Desiree Jennings is a young woman from Ashburn, Virginia. She was a member of the vaccine manufactroversy in 2009. In October that year, Desiree claimed that she was affected by a rare disease after a flu shot.

Her story went viral when she was seen doing weird movements on TV. When experts viewed her viral video, they couldn't find any representative of her condition or disorder. Only shortly after, she was cured using chelation therapy, and everything fell into place.

But her story and the media coverage sadly led to children delaying their vaccination shots which may have caused them a long-term effect with medical complications.

How It All Began

Many still believe that Desiree Jennings was faking her condition for publicity. But the reality is known to only a few before it was revealed to everyone via the media. Before her shot, Desiree Jennings used to be perfectly fine and in great shape.

She was the Washington Redskins Ambassador and on the NFL cheerleaders' team. After her story got viral, she was referred to as the NFL cheerleader by the ignorant media, which wasn't true, per se. But this false information let people overlook its inaccurate fawning on an attractive woman with a videogenic story.

Desiree Jennings reported taking the flu shot on August 23, 2009, which brought her flu-like symptoms. Although the signs were typical, studies couldn't find a causal link to the same.

After September 7, it was reported that she was having fainting spells and convulsions. But even here, no apparent physical cause was found validating her unusual symptoms. But soon, her effects went from bad to worse. She started being unable to speak in complete sentences.

She began slurring and stuttering and losing short-term memory. The more she tried remembering things, the more her speech was affected. As such, she would sometimes speak gibberish. And when she did speak, it sounded like she picked up a British accent.

In an interview, she said it might sound like an accent, but she could not pronounce words correctly. However, all the more shocking was her inability to walk normally anymore.

Desiree Jennings was no more the avid runner that she was before the flu shot incident. She became someone who could not even stand straight and who wobbled and lurched whenever she tried to walk.

According to her reports, neurologists were clueless about her condition, but not too late enough, her physical therapist learned her symptoms and diagnosed her with dystonia. It was very controversial because even neurologists missed it, but a physical therapist didn't.

Her neurologists ruled dystonia out of the picture. But later, the physical therapist of Desiree Jennings either misdiagnosed or mentioned the highest possibility that she termed as her "official" diagnosis.

Even today, no clear evidence could validate her supposed 'dystonia,' leaving several people to believe that she was only fabricating the whole story for publicity.

Desiree Jennings Turns To Controversial Osteopath For Therapy

It was a little controversial for the reason that Desiree Jennings found out that she could run fine. She could run well. But all she could not do normally was to walk or talk. Additionally, her brain sometimes couldn't control the action of her lungs to breathe.

This led her to have fainting spells and convulsions. Jennings' husband, Brendan, said that he used to get scared when he would discover his wife passing out or shaking uncontrollably. The couple visited various places to find a permanent cure.

Traditional medicine did no good to her, and finally, she decided to take a different approach and visited Dr. Rashid Buttar. Dr. Buttar used an unproven and alternative treatment like for any other medical condition that came his way. He used Chelation which chemically removes metals from the body.

Dr. Buttar suspected that the mercury in the flu shot must have poisoned her. He then started his chelation process, and in about two weeks, Desiree Jennings began to feel better. She could walk again, and her speech was coming back. The stuttering was over.

But after her final visit to Dr. Buttar's clinic, after the 20/20's, her condition worsened, and she was taken in a wheelchair.

Symptoms Are "Psychogenic," Experts Say

Some believe that Buttar's treatment was ineffective. However, Buttar claimed to get results through his treatments and shared his patient testimonials on his website.

Many experts thought that Desiree Jennings had fabricated all her condition in her head and was not medically possible. They referred to her condition as "psychogenic."

Desiree Jennings found that term insulting and said incompetent doctors would state such conclusions to get one out of their office.

Summing Up

Today, Desiree Jennings, though not that bad, remains convinced that it all began with the flu shot. She, therefore, continues to search for a permanent solution to cure herself. She is currently seeing a specialist for her condition.

She believes that although every door seems to have closed and doctors believe that her condition is psychogenic, she knows she is trying. She is not faking it, and she does not have any reason to do so. Therefore, she keeps struggling to find a cure.

"If I have to go over to China and do experimental procedures, I'll find a way to get it all back," she said. "It may take a while, but I will get everything back. I will find a way."