Doctor treating flu shot patient could lose license

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Desiree Jennings says she couldn't walk or talk after getting a flu shot, and the newest twist in the case is happening in Charlotte.

The aspiring cheerleader is fighting to regain her life. She brought that fight to Charlotte and says she's now on the road to recovery.

NewsChannel 36 checked into the background of the doctor she says is helping her recover -- and it turns out he's in a fight of his own.

"Hi everyone, this is Desiree Jennings," Jennings says in a video onher new Web Site.

In the video, she sits in a chair, looking fragile and sounding weak, but her speech is normal. The transformation is stunning.

"I've been receiving treatment and doing very well," she says.

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Just a few weeks ago the 25-year-old cheerleader struggled with her speech and said she could only walk backwards, supposedly after getting a seasonal flu shot.

Doctors diagnosed Jennings with dystonia -- an incurable neurological disorder.

Now, Huntersville Dr. Rashid Buttar is treating Jennings and she's revealing her progress with a video on her Web site.

Meanwhile, onButtar's Web site, we found this quote: "He is considered by his peers to be one of the preeminent physicians in the United States."

But the North Carolina Medical Board is trying to restrict his license. Buttar addresses it with several videos on his site.

"I want you to know what the truth is. The medical board in North Carolina has been coming after me for well over nine years now," he says.

The board charges Buttar lied to cancer patients and overcharged them

"Each time they have come after me it's been based on ludicrous things," he says.

The state claims he used therapies that were "unproven and ineffective" in treating those patients.

To that, he says, "We definitely dispute this fact."

One of his common treatments? The medical board says he puts hydrogen peroxide in patient IVs.

Buttar says, "It's this type of medicine that shows hope that actually cures conditions, that removes the toxic agent that is the cause of all disease."

Buttar's star patient seems optimistic.

"Just want to let you know there is hope," Jennings says on her Web site.

NewsChannel 36 requested an interview with Buttar but his office said he was only talking to national media. We also learned he is not board certified and is scheduled for a hearing before an administrative law judge with the state medical board.

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