new medical treatment plan they'd established for our son in their misguided efforts to "help" him. We finally applied for and received some state aid in settling the medical bills, but we still found ourselves owing $35k in medical debt even after that.
All in all, by the time it was all said in done that first year, we had taken our son to SIX doctors for a diagnosis and medical treatments in our efforts to help him. (These doctors included, but are not limited to: two pediatricians, one neurologist, one pediatric neurologist, an otolaryngologist, and a pathologist.) Each one ran test after many (painful) tests to rule out all other possibilities. Each one had copies of all the medical records contrived from birth until their appointments to see what the other professionals had done prior. We wanted them to have the bigger picture, we didn't want them repeating tests he'd already had and we wanted them to be able to make a better informed diagnosis and for them to come up with a potential treatment plan. Each one came back with "post-immunization related" and wrote it as such in our son's medical charts.
Some of the diagnoses for my son included, but are not limited to, encephalitis, acute cerebellar ataxia (imbalance issue), suspect petit mal seizures (now known as absent seizures), severe Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and more.
But not one of those doctors could come up with anything better than advising us to give our son this drug (i.e. Ritalin) or another. All any of those drugs ever did was to mask the symptoms and many caused additional problems all their own.
Within a few months of Andrew's adverse reaction, his father and I split up. He just couldn't handle the heartbreak and started going into denial. We fought. He stormed out. I found myself in the middle of a divorce, one where the father decided he didn't want to be a part of his child's life as he "couldn't handle it". I found myself alone, raising this child, bouncing from one doctor referral to another, attending physical and occupational therapies. I ended up with sole custody with full medical decisions and $194 per month in child support.
Andrew's story continued
My son spent a week in ICU fighting for his
life. When he was finally able to go home,
he had lost his ability to walk, talk, or feed
himself. Life, as we all knew it, had ended
and a new devastating chapter had begun.
To add insult to injury, our insurance policy -
which took effect on 1 May 1988 - absolutely
refused to pay any of the medical bills
associated with these injuries. The
insurance company felt our son's medical
condition was potentially a "pre-existing"
one and, back then, could refuse to cover
the expenses we endured under that
classification. We were over $100k in
medical debt as a direct result.
We didn't know how to fight the insurance
company (we'd never had insurance before),
so all of his medical debt went to collections
and showed up against our credit bureaus
for several years. It was tough coming
back from that - especially considering
the medical debt kept piling on with each
DOSES of VACCINES for U.S. CHILDREN from BIRTH-18 YEARS {click on picture to enlarge}
