Jabs support group backs tragic toddler's parents

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thisisgloucester.co.uk

Jabs support group backs tragic toddler's parents

Friday, December 05, 2008, 11:10

The parents of an 18-month-old boy who died 10 days after having his MMR jab

lost a “ and Goliath” battle against the establishment, a vaccines pressure

group said last night.

Jabs (Justice, Awareness and Basic Support), which supports “vaccine-damaged”

children, claimed baby Fisher’s inquest found he died of natural causes

because only “inadequate” data about the drug was available.

was discovered dead in his cot in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, on January

19 2006 by his mother, Fisher, hours after he was heard “chatting away on

the baby monitor”.

Mrs Fisher, 42, and husband , 43, still believe the vaccine is

“implicated” in their son’s death as its temperature-raising effects on children

who have previously suffered a fit, as had, were not explained to them.

Yesterday Gloucestershire coroner Alan Crickmore decided, after listening to a

series of expert witnesses, that ’s symptoms had emerged too soon after

the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) jab to be related to it.

Although had a 2% chance of suffering a convulsion after the jab, those

were not known to be fatal and there was no evidence he had even had a second

fit.

Instead county coroner Alan Crickmore found he died from a rare condition known

as Sudden Unexpected Death in Childhood, due to an unascertained disease.

JABS spokeswoman Jackie Fletcher said after the verdict in Gloucester that the

tests carried out before MMR was licensed were too limited and that surveillance

of the drug’s safety was currently based on only a ’tiny’ sample.

She said: “The process was compromised because it was a versus Goliath

situation and didn’t have a strong slingshot. The legal representation for

the family was unable to match that of the vaccine manufacturer’s resources.

“I am surprised the DoH said there was no evidence of a seizure being linked

with a child’s death following MMR as our Government’s Vaccine Damage Payment

Unit has made a number of payments to families whose children have died

following MMR including after seizures. Measles virus was found in the child’s

lungs.

“The pre-licence trials were too short in duration and too few in numbers to

show up the ’rare’ events. The vaccine surveillance system is inadequate in that

only a tiny proportion of adverse reactions are put forward for investigation

therefore making the safety data equally inadequate on which the DoH evidence

was based.”

Department of Health guidelines say the jab should be given “with caution” but

does not ban child sufferers of febrile convulsions – fever fits – from taking

it and recommends temperature monitoring.

Fighting back tears, Mrs Fisher, a hotel receptionist standing outside court

with her husband, a pipe-fitter, said: “I think it’s so wrong to put the death

of a healthy little boy down to natural causes. There’s nothing natural about an

18-month-old boy dying of nothing, because that’s what it was – nothing.

“This has devastated our family all over again. Three years of work and reports

and it’s just natural causes? I’ll never, ever understand that word.”

In a 13-page verdict the coroner said that ’s “loving and experienced”

parents were not to blame in any way for the tragedy.

He ruled that just because the MMR jab and the death happened closely in time,

there was nothing to show the jab on January 9 2006 caused the death 10 days

later.

Mr Crickmore was convinced by the evidence of Infant Health Professor

Fleming, of Bristol University, who put forward Sudden Unexpected Death in

Childhood as the cause of death.

Prof Fleming could not find a link to the MMR vaccine despite looking “extremely

hard” because of ’s parents’ concerns.

Earlier in the three-day inquest, the coroner heard that was born at a

healthy 8lb 10oz, and came through his routine injections with no side-effects.

GP Annette Bugaighis confirmed that, four months before his jab, on September 25

2005, fell ill after returning from a holiday in Spain.

After suffering a fit at the Overton Park surgery he was rushed to hospital,

where it was found he had suffered febrile convulsion – a fit caused by a fever.

Both Dr Bugaighis and consultant paediatrician Alan Day, of Cheltenham General

Hospital, agreed that was safe to be given the vaccine on January 9 2006

- adding that he should be monitored for possible raised temperature.

In evidence, Mrs Fisher said her son was a “healthy and robust” child who had

breast-fed for 11 months – longer than her other three children.

After his febrile illness he was given antibiotics and on the Wednesday before

he died was “running around, playing football with his father”.

The night before he died he was “chatting away on the baby monitor”, she added.

She said: “He took his bottle of water and I put the quilt over him, stroked his

head and said goodnight. I went to bed, heard him drink his water, then throw

the bottle on the floor. I heard him shuffling around.”

At 8am his sister, Meg, who was sharing a room with him, called out to her.

She added: “I was surprised he was not awake. I tried to wake him but it was

clear he was dead because of his colour and he was cold.”

Mr Fisher said: “If we had (been given a Patient Information Leaflet), we would

have gone to hospital much quicker because of the information in that list. We

would have been much more concerned than we actually were.”

The coroner said in his judgment that whether or not the parents were given

advice on monitoring him had not affected the outcome, as they had done so

anyway, as experienced parents.

Professor , an immunisation expert for the Health Protection

Agency said: “Fatal outcomes associated with MMR vaccination as a result of

febrile convulsion have not, to my knowledge, been reported.”