KATIE'S STORY

          Our youngest daughter was 18 months old when she was brain injured by her immunizations.   Katie was a beautiful little girl, happy and healthy.  She was walking and beginning to talk.  In April of 1990 after she received 7 vaccines (DPT, Oral Polio, and MMR) all of this changed.

          The day of her immunizations she slept almost 24 hours, her leg became swollen and hot at the injection site.  Within a week of her vaccinations we noticed her first seizure.   Out of the corner of my eye I saw her head jerk down and her arms flew up, it was very quick.  Over the next weeks these jerks came more often and then started coming in clusters.  The clusters were usually 10-20 seizures at a time with about 10-20 clusters a day.  (We later learned that she had many clusters at night also.)

          Katie was given an EEG, which showed almost constant seizure activity.  The first thing I asked her pediatrician was "Could the vaccines have done something to her?"   He said he didn't think so.

          Over the next six years Katie suffered from many ear infections, 3 bouts of pneumonia, a constant little cough and thousands of medication resistant seizures.  She lost most of her ability to talk and her development all but stopped.  She went through many tests, all of which were normal. She went through many drugs, none of which controlled her seizures.  She spent 7 months on the ketogenic diet and finally, we tried brain surgery.  Nothing helped her.

          Through all of this, Katie was a happy sweetheart of a little girl with lots of hugs.  She had to wear a helmet to protect her from the many drop seizures, which would send her little face crashing into the floor.  At times the seizures would be so bad we would lose the little bit of Katie we had left. 

She would just have a blankness in her eyes.

          What I have learned since Katie was injured is that she was at a high risk of having an adverse reaction, they are as follows:

1. She was not totally healthy at the time of her vaccinations.  Even though she seemed healthy she had an ear infection that was not fully cleared up.

2. There had been 64 adverse events and one death reported to the Center for Disease Control on the lot number of the DTP vaccine which Katie received.  (As of yet there is not protocol for recalling a lot of vaccine no matter how many adverse events or deaths are reported.)

3. She had allergies to milk and eggs.  She should have never received her MMR because it is grown in chick cultures.  Also, a milk allergy can put you at a higher risk of having a reaction to the "P" part of the DTP.

4. She was small for her age (below the 5th percentile).

          During all of this I wanted to know, if the vaccines hurt her - what did they do and how can we fix it?  Her neurologist told us that they don't know what exactly the vaccines do and so far, there is no way to fix the damage.

          Katie died in a seizure drowning on August 12, 1996 - two months before her 8th birthday.   As a family watching her go through all she did was hard but losing her is the most painful thing we have had to endure.  We truly love her and could never explain how much we miss her!

          This is why I am dedicated to getting as much information to as many parents as possible.   You need to make the choice whether or not to vaccinate you child.  You need to research to find out if your child is at risk of an adverse reaction.  Don't let anyone bully you into making a decision before you have the facts. 

          In Idaho you have the right to refuse some or all immunizations for your child because of medical, religious or other reasons (and your kids still can go to school).

Please, get the facts before you immunize your child!