Non-Stop Sneezing Plagues Virginia Girl

The 12-year old Virginia girl, Lauren Johnson, sneezes as many as 16 times a minute, or 12,000 times per day, while she's awake. And the only respite she gets is if she's exhausted enough to fall asleep. As the New York Post reports, Lauren's sneezing began two weeks ago when she was recovering from a cold. She is sneezing so much that her school told her to go home until she can stop. She's now having homework sent home, and sometimes teachers come to her house. "I don't feel a tickle in my nose; (it's) just kind of constant, I don't really notice it that often anymore," she told the Post. "It just kind of comes out." Kansas City TV station KMBC reports that Lynn Johnson, Lauren's mom, believes it could be an extremely rare medical condition that will have to be treated with therapy of hypnosis. She has taken her daughter to several doctors who tell her Lauren is a healthy young girl. One doctor Lauren recently saw said she might have "machine gun sneezing," a rare condition that can be triggered by allergies or abnormal growths in the nasal passage. These growths can cause rapid-fire sneezing bouts.