MMR Vaccine Played No Part In Baby's Sudden Death, Coroner Says

[Guest guest]

It appears that " death by natural causes " has an expanded definition

and is now overly diagnosed. -Lenny

MMR Vaccine Played No Part In Baby's Sudden Death, Coroner Says

http://is.gd/aewg

Fisher's parents dismayed by coroner's verdict that the

18-month-old died of natural causes

Fisher who died aged 17 months, 10 days after having the

MMR triple jab. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

The MMR vaccine played no part in the death of a baby 10 days

after getting the jab, a coroner ruled today.

Fisher, aged 18 months, was discovered dead in his cot in

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, by his mother, Fisher, hours after

he was heard " chatting away on the baby monitor " .

Fisher, 42, and her husband , 43, believe the vaccine

is " implicated " in their son's death in January 2006.

They said no one had explained to them the temperature-raising

effect of the jab on children who had previously suffered a fit, as

had.

But the Gloucestershire coroner Alan Crickmore decided that

's symptoms had emerged too soon after receiving the MMR

(measles, mumps and rubella) 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.

The coroner recorded a verdict of natural causes, ruling that

had died from a rare condition known as Sudden Unexpected Death

in Childhood, due to an unascertained disease.

The verdict came after doctors, paediatricians and consultants

told the hearing at Gloucester shire hall there was no evidence of a

link between 's death and the jab.

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 monitoring temperatures.

After the hearing the family's lawyer, Judith Leach, said

's parents were " extremely disappointed " with the verdict and

would always believe MMR was to blame as no other cause had been found.

She read a statement saying: " The family are extremely

disappointed in the verdict.

" In the absence of any medical evidence to explain why their

healthy little boy died and given the timing of the MMR vaccination in

relation to 's death, his parents firmly believe there is a link

between the two events and that the MMR vaccine had a role to play in

's death. "

Fisher, standing outside court with her husband, 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. "

Ten years ago research led by Dr Wakefield, who is under

investigation by the General Medical Council, sparked fears that the

combined MMR vaccine was linked to autism.

Major studies in Britain, Finland and Japan have since disproved

the connection but popular anxiety persists.

Last week it emerged that cases of measles had topped 1,000 for

the first time in more than a decade, which public health experts

blamed on the " relatively low " uptake of the MMR vaccine.