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Weird News: Girl Battles Hiccups for Five Weeks Straight

Meaghan Wagner

Issue date: 3/7/07 Section: News
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Teen Jennifer Mee hiccupped for five straight weeks.
Media Credit: www.msnbc.com
Teen Jennifer Mee hiccupped for five straight weeks.

Mee tries to cure her hiccups to no avail.
Media Credit: www.today.com
Mee tries to cure her hiccups to no avail.

For the last five weeks, a 15-year-old girl in St. Petersburg, Florida has been racked with a mysterious ailment: she was unable to stop hiccupping.

For five weeks, Jennifer Mee tried every hiccup cure she knew, like sipping pickle juice, holding her breath, and breathing into a bag. She even went to a neurologist, but nothing could stop the series of rapid hiccups day after day.

At about 5 p.m. on Wednesday of last week they stopped mysteriously on their own. Her doctors are at a loss as to what initiated and ultimately ceased the anomaly.

The hiccups started on Jan. 23. In the process of trying to stop the hiccups she ended up visiting a slew of doctors and specialists. Besides the neurologist, she also saw an infectious disease specialist, a chiropractor, a hypnotist, and an acupuncturist. She tried a patented device that is designed to stop hiccups, plus all the old remedies.

It was estimated by her doctors that she hiccupped an average of 50 times per minute. It was also stated by her doctors and family that she only was able to stop when she was sleeping. After the third week, her mother called the media to try to find more help for her daughter. As a result they ended up on NBC's Today show.

"Right now, my nose is burning and my throat hurts," she told the St. Petersburg Times when the hiccups finally desisted. She said she felt a lot better than she had in weeks.

According to the National Institute of Health, "Hiccups can be triggered by anything from spicy foods to stress, and they can start for no reason at all. They're caused by involuntary contractions of the diaphragm, which causes the vocal cords to close briefly, making that distinctive sound." For Mee, that was one set of "involuntary contractions" that she won't soon forget.


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