My son, Andrew, was born in the late fall of 1986. He weighed in at 6 lbs 13.6 oz and was 20 inches long. Back in those days, vaccines didn't start the day he was born like they do today (i.e. Hep B). They started when he was two months of age.
From the moment he was given his first vaccines (12 Dec 1986, which included the DTP and OPV), he started suffering from inner ear infections. What I didn't know at the time, inner ear infections are listed as a known possible side effect of vaccines.
As a result, of those inner ear infections, we started visiting his pediatrician on average of at least once per month for antibiotics.
During these doctors visits for the inner ear infections, my son's milestones were duly noted in his medical charts. They indicated he was walking by the time he was 9 months old, clearly enunciating the scientific names of dinosaurs by the time he was 15 months old, and potty training by the time he was 16 months old. The pediatrician was absolutely amazed by his progress and would brag to everyone about it in the office while we were there, "You wouldn't believe what this young man can do at his age!" was a common statement heard.
It should be recognized that our pediatrician was not comfortable with the recommended immunization schedule as indicated for the times. The schedule was as followed:
2 months DTP, OPV
4 months DTP, OPV
6 months DTP
15 months MMR
18 months DTP, OPV
Our pediatrician expressed his concern to me in regards to all of the live viruses being injected into such tiny little bodies all at once. (We never touched on the topic of the additional ingredients found in the vaccines.) Another factor in his delaying the schedule was that since our son was sick so often with inner ear infections, he didn't want to inject my son with these live viruses while his body was already fighting off an infection.
As a result of our pediatrician's concerns, he had us set up on a delayed schedule. My son did not receive his second set of DTP and OPV until he was 6 months of age (16 April 1987). Directly after those vaccines were given to him, my son suffered yet another onslaught of inner ear infections and took several additional rounds of antibiotics.
My gut told me to take my child and RUN as fast as I could out of their doors, but they had not yet given me the WIC checks we desperately needed during these leans times for our family. She continued to brow beat me until I caved. Before I could change my mind, this nurse injected my son with a round of DTP, OPV, and MMR.
Before we had even left the building, my son was screaming a high-pitched scream I had never heard out of him before. He had swelling starting at the injection sites and he was arching his back. While I expressed my concerns over this initial adverse reaction, the nurse insisted this was "normal" and to "just give him some Tylenol", that he'd "settle down" and "be fine".
Several hours later, my son was still screaming, the injection sites were looking worse, and he couldn't seem to lay down flat as he was constantly arching his back. Unfortunately, he was now running a high fever on top of everything else. My (now ex) husband and I only had one car and no home phone back then and he had taken the car to work with him later that day. The nearest payphone was 6 blocks from our house. I gathered up my son, put him in his umbrella stroller, and walked to that payphone. I called the WIC office. I spoke to the same nurse who had injected my child, expressing my concerns yet again. She advised me to give my son more Tylenol. Eventually, my son passed out from utter exhaustion, but when he woke back up less than an hour later, he started up with it all over again. This went on and on.
We were up all that night with our son, trying to calm him down, to bring his fever down. All to no avail. My husband had to go into work bright and early the next morning, so he took the car with him. Once again, I loaded up my son into his umbrella stroller and walked to the nearest pay phone to call the nurse. Once again, I was informed how uneducated I was and that I should listen to her. Just give him more Tylenol. Don't worry, this shall pass, you're just an over-anxious mother.... I grew more and more frustrated with how my concerns were being brushed off. Something just. was. not. right. I knew it.
My mom stopped by during her lunch hour 36 hours after my son started his adverse reaction. She drove us to the pediatrician's office. He took one look at my son and immediately called it for what it was - an adverse reaction to the series of vaccines given to him by the WIC nurse. He told his nurse to call the neurologist while he called the WIC office. While I'm in his office, he thoroughly chewed the WIC nurse out for "circumventing the care" of HIS patient. Informed her, he was going to be filing a complaint against her. My mother and I then went to see the neurologist who then sent us to the hospital to be admitted into the ICU (our town didn't have a NICU at the time).
Andrew's vaccine injury story
Andrew T. lost his ability to walk, talk, and feed himself after his DTP, OPV, and MMR vaccines at 18mos of age in 1988.
On 24 May 1988, when Andrew was 18 months of age, I attended a WIC appointment at the Enid, Garfield County, Oklahoma branch office to pick up our WIC checks. The nurses there weighed and measured my son, noted our health concerns over the ear infections (which he'd just completed another round of antibiotics for), and noted his advanced milestones in their records.
While there, the nurse informed me my son needed his vaccines. I told them what our pediatrician recommended. She strongly disagreed with him and then proceeded to BULLY me into catching my son up to the schedule. She's been doing this for XX many of years. She's college educated, has her degree, while I'm so young (shy of 22 years) and a lowly stay-at-home mother with just a high school education at best.
