Happy ending for 'hiccup girl'

The Florida girl who developed chronic hiccuping mysteriously 38 days ago woke up hiccup-free on Thursday, TODAY host Matt Lauer reported today.

After Jennifer Mee, 15, started hiccuping 50 times a minute on Jan. 23, she was forced to stop attending school and had trouble sleeping. The teen and her family consulted doctors from St. Petersburg, Fla., to New York but no one was able to identify the sudden cause of her condition, which is marked by uncontrolled spasms of the diaphragm.

Jennifer told her story on TODAY Feb. 16, prompting thousands of viewers to e-mail their  recommendations for home remedies. That weekend, Jennifer tried many of the suggestions, but nothing worked and she continued to hiccup.

Lauer told viewers Thursday morning that TODAY producers received a call from Jennifer reporting that she awoke on Thursday and, although feeling a tad sick, she was pleasantly surprised when she realized she was not hiccuping for the first time in nearly six weeks.

It was not immediately clear why Jennifer’s hiccups stopped. Jennifer told a Florida radio station that she believes a combination of therapies and remedies helped her overcome her condition.

“Actually, it was a mixture of things. It was my [special drinking cup], a chiropractor, a hypnotist and an acupuncturist,” said Jennifer, smiling broadly. “Monday, I'm going back to school for sure. That's the first thing I told my mom, that I want to go back to school.”

If Jennifer’s condition has gone away permanently, the teenager is fortunate. In extreme cases, chronic hiccuping can persist for months, years or decades.

TODAY plans more coverage in Friday morning's broadcast.

— John Springer, contributor for TODAY