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.”

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Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

Vaccines - http://www.wellwithin1.com/vaccine.htm

Vaccine Dangers & Homeopathy Online/email courses start in December 2008