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Girl has incredibly rare condition that sees her sneeze 12,000 times a day

Home> News> Health

Published 20:45 5 Dec 2023 GMT

Girl has incredibly rare condition that sees her sneeze 12,000 times a day

Katelyn Thornley is relentlessly reaching for a tissue as she simply cannot stop sneezing

Olivia Burke

Olivia Burke

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Whether you're suffering from a cold, your allergies are flaring up or something has simply tickled your nose, a sneeze is probably going to blast itself out of your nose. We all do it.

So does this teenage girl - but the problem is, she just doesn't stop.

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Poor Katelyn Thornley finds herself relentlessly reaching for a tissue as she simply cannot stop the sneezes coming.

The schoolgirl says the bizarre medical condition is surprisingly painful, as her body is constantly bracing for the next gust flying out of her nostrils - even throughout the night, as she still sneezes in her dreams.

At the age of 12, she suddenly began sneezing while walking out of a clarinet lesson at her school in Texas, US, explaining how 'it kind of started like little spurts'.

Katelyn initially presumed it could be an allergic reaction or that her nose had just been irritated by something and thought it would soon come to a stop. But it never did.

The youngster claimed the strange problem only got worse, seeing her sneeze up to 20 times a minute - which adds up to a whopping 12,000 times a day.

She told ABC News: "It was just a few sneezes here and there, but by the time I went to bed, I had sneezed 30 times that night."

Schoolgirl Katelyn started sneezing up to 12,000 times a day.
Inside Edition

In the following weeks, her sneezing sprees began to last for up to 15 minutes at a time, meaning Katelyn could barely finish a sentence.

She ended up having to stop attending school and gave up playing clarinet for the band due to the bizarre condition.

Her mum Erika Hodges said: "She can't really go to school or do anything normal. She can't eat well, she has to sip. She can't drink. It's affected everything."

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Medics at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston tried to get to the bottom of the puzzling sneezing situation and what had caused it, but they were pretty baffled by the unique case.

Sharing his suspicions, Dr Mered Parnes said: "She had kind of a funny feeling that she described in her nose and that piece of her history is very common for tics."

Katelyn had seen six doctors when her story when public in September 2015, who had all ruled out allergies and the presence of a virus, leaving them stumped.

She has to take Benadryl and listen to The Beatles to get to sleep.
Inside Edition

Her parents were growing increasingly concerned about their daughter's relentless sneezing and the mystery cause of it.

The girl's dad, Travis, recalled a time where Katelyn had an 'episode' which lasted for 45 minutes straight.

According to the Guinness World Records, the longest sneezing fit is 976 days - so you can imagine the panic the family felt when something set her off.

Travis said: "She was screaming in pain a couple of times and all I can do is just hold her tight and wait for her to go to sleep.".

"It's hard to watch. Anything you talk to her about that irritates here – you can see it spike and continuous sneezing."

But Travis and Erika still held out hope that someone would come forward and offer up answers about Katelyn's condition.

The teenager only got a bit of peace from sneezing when she finally falls asleep - and she has to take Benadryl and listen to The Beatles to get her off.

"Sometimes I wish I could leave my body for a little while so I could watch myself sleep," the youngster said. "Because even in my dreams, I sneeze."

Despite eight years having passed, there has been no official update on Katelyn's sneezing habit. Let's hope she no longer needs to bulk buy tissues.

Featured Image Credit: Inside Edition

Topics: Health, Weird, US News

Olivia Burke
Olivia Burke

Olivia is a journalist at LADbible Group with more than five years of experience and has worked for a number of top publishers, including News UK. She also enjoys writing food reviews (as well as the eating part). She is a stereotypical reality TV addict, but still finds time for a serious documentary.

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@livburke_

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