This is the story of Jessica and Ashley, as told by their mother, Chris Runquist.

This is the story of Jessica and Ashley, as told by their mother, Chris Runquist.
This is why I won’t shut up about the damned vaccines!

These are my twin daughters Jessica and Ashley. They were born normally a month early for twins, in 1985. Except for medical hernia issues that Jessica had since infancy, they were happy and bright! You can see it in their eyes. They were in normal school and had lots of friends and lots of activities! Our dreams for them were optimistic and beautiful.

But then something happened in 1998, when they were 12 years old. They had the Hepatitis B shot for school. 20 minutes later, it was followed by anaphylaxis, blue lips, projectile vomiting, and seizure-like flailing of the arms and eyes rolling back. The doctor yelled at me on the phone when I called her and insisted that it was not from the injections that she administered 20 minutes prior at the office.

Jessica’s life was immediately set back and changed after this. She never ever functioned at her full potential ever again after that shot. She was finally diagnosed with Autism in her teenage years. Complex medical issues followed her throughout her life.

Ashley, on the other hand recovered from this episode, after a week or so, but did go on to have occasional black outs and would fall unconscious. The doctors called it Syncope, and one of her spinal tests confirmed that it could be Guillain Barre Syndrome. Ashley continued to work very hard through all of this. She was even on the Dean’s List in college but continued to have the blackouts. In 2008 Ashley ended up in the hospital needing blood transfusions and her life went downhill fast after that. She was eventually diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s.

Today, both Ashley and Jessica are totally disabled, have extreme difficulty with communication, wear diapers and are incontinent and need 24/7 care. That spark in their eyes faded a long time ago, and so did our dreams for their future.