TAMPA BAY, Fla. — A Florida woman is claiming the flu shot is to blame for her daughter’s sudden paralysis.
Last year, Carla Grivna says she was the mother of a happy and healthy nine-year-old girl, until her daughter received the flu shot just before Thanksgiving Day 2013. She said, however, that three days later her daughter, Marysue, could not talk or move or talk.
Marysue is now 10 years old and bedridden after being diagnosed with a rare viral infection of the brain called Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis, or ADEM. Grivna believes the diagnosis is directly tied to the flu shot.
“The doctors won’t confirm it or deny it,” Grivna told Fox & Friends Sunday. “Her father Steven and I are certain, due to all of our research, that this was what caused Marysue’s condition. She was a happy, healthy, running and playing nine-year-old then this happened.”
“There was no underlying condition. I mean so many tests at the hospital to try and find something else that could have caused it and they could not find anything,” added Grivna.
Marysue’s father has to carry his daughter to get her around.
“It can just appear out of the blue or after maybe a surgical procedure,” Dr. Juan Dumois, a physician and director of infectious diseases at All Children’s Hospital, told WTSP-TV in Tampa Bay.
Dr. Dumois said Friday, that a flu shot can cause the illness, but he does not recommend going without a flu shot.
“If I get the flu I’m more likely to get ADEM than from the flu vaccine,” Dr. Dumois said, adding that recovery is possible.
Grivna says it’s important for parents to educate themselves about the flu vaccine.
“Be informed and make an informed decision with you doctor’s guidance,” she said on “Fox & Friends.”