May 3, 2010

A Wichita teenager's life-threatening condition is getting worse, but a group of specialty doctors is giving her new hope for a normal life. 16-year-old Gabi Swank is fighting to get the HPV vaccine Gardasil off the market. Some of her doctors believe it may have caused her condition. Now after months of hearing there is nothing anyone can do, Gabi and her mom are heading to a hospital on the West Coast to see a new group of specialists.

"To go back, and give her life back, there's nothing in the world I wouldn't give," said Gabi's mom, Shannon Schrag.

It has been two-and-a-half years since 16-year-old Gabi Swank got a shot. Doctors now believe that shot is causing brain swelling, seizures, and could take her life.

"It's like stabbing, like a stabbing pain in your head," said Swank.

The pain started after Gabi got the Gardasil vaccine, which is meant to prevent cervical cancer. Her symptoms got progressively worse, then in December doctors started telling Gabi and her mom that there was nothing they could do to help her.

"I would never wish that on anyone. I can't even begin to explain what it feels like," said Schrag.

But now, a specialty hospital on the West Coast has accepted Gabi's case, so she and her mom are leaving town with a new hope.

"Now that there is hope, I'm grasping onto it as hard as I can," said Swank.

She's grasping to the hope that she may get to go back to school, get her driver's license, return to cheer leading. These are all things Gabi has lost in the past two years.

"I'm definitely optimistic. I'm going out there with all the hope in the world," said Gabi.

But while Gabi and her mom are hopeful, they say they're realistic. Realistic is something Gabi has had to become after developing her deadly condition.

"Everybody's goal is to go to heaven, so if I have God in my heart then I have nothing to worry about," said Gabi.

But it is something Gabi's mom worries about constantly, and says she desperately wishes she could change.

"I'd give everything, I'd live in a box on the street corner to go back to what she was like before," said Schrag.

The CDC says there have been more than 1,200 reports of serious side effects following the Gardasil vaccine. The agency is researching those cases. But some doctors still believe the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks, as it is proven to prevent cervical cancer.

The Immanuel Lutheran Church on South Market in Wichita is holding a benefit concert and dinner for Gabi on Saturday, May 8th.

Find more information on the Gardasil vaccine in the "Related Links" section below.