Oh wow Joseph, what a sad story! I'm looking up that book, thanks for the info! I wish I had more to say, you sort of don't have words when you hear about the unnecessary death of someone, esp. a child, due to someone's ignorance, esp. if that someone is supposed to be a professional and know their stuff.

> When I was little everyone started getting
> their kids various vacinations. I had them
> all. The Smallpox vacination went fine for
> me, and so did the others, except the DPT.

> DPT stands for "Dyptheria, Pertussis
> and Tetnus".

> My hip where I was given the shot swelled
> up, and I began to run high fevers and
> became deathly ill. I was hospitalized, and
> when it was all over, I had to learn to walk
> again. Nobody put the shot with my illness
> together until many years later.

> When I first got together with Jane, she
> already had two small children that were
> born in the Family. Christian was two, and
> Gretchen was a newborn.

> Christian got the DPT, and had a really bad
> reaction to it too. Not as bad as I did.
> But, he was so sore, I remember him dragging
> himself around the house rather than walk or
> crawl, because his hip was so sore and
> swolen. I also believe he had high fever,
> but did not end up in the hospital. I told
> my Mother about it, and she said it sounded
> similar to what happened to me after the
> DPT.

> We still didn't fully understand it,
> however, until Gretchen got the DPT.
> Gretchen had a neurological disorder that
> manifested itself with petit moll seizures,
> usually on a daily basis. She was on
> anti-seizure medication like dilantin and
> phenobarbitol, but she still had seizures on
> most days.

> Apparently, at that time, it said right on
> the DPT bottle something like, "DO NOT
> ADMINISTER TO PATIENTS WITH NEUROLOGICAL
> DISORDERS".

> The doctor gave it to Gretchen anyway. And
> she got sick. Much sicker than I got. She
> never recovered from it. She went blind and
> deaf. She became mostly non-responsive for
> the rest of her life.

> Now, when I lay it out like this it seems
> that only a moron would not put it together.
> But, we really didn't get it until Jane was
> talking to a friend, and her friend talked
> to her husband who was a lawyer. He
> contacted Jane and said that he was
> interested in suing the Gretchen's Doctors
> because it sounded like her problems might
> have been caused or at least agrivated by
> the DPT shot.

> After that we became experts in this. We
> read everthing, and there was a huge amount
> of evidence out there that pointed to the
> "P" part of the DPT being very
> dangerous.

> At the age of three, Gretchen died. We ended
> up having to drop the lawsuit, because we
> were told that the life of a child was
> considered worthless to the courts. If she
> had lived, and we needed money to care for
> her, then we had a case. But, with no child,
> we had no case. So, the case never made it
> to court. But, several others have.

> I never advise Parents against vacinating a
> child, because I don't want them to come to
> me all upset if their child gets some
> horrible disease.

> But, I will tell you that with our next two
> children, we allowed them to get the
> Dyptheria and Tetnus shots, but not the
> Pertussis. They can break it apart like
> that, and the other two vacines have been
> tolerated by the kids without major
> problems.

> The schools here in California, and the
> doctors will lead you to belive that these
> shots are mandated by law, but they are NOT.
> Jane has had to endure a lot of
> misinformation, and down right bullying from
> school and health professionals insisting on
> our other two kids getting the full DPT, but
> we have resisted it, and neither of the kids
> has gotten pertussis. But, we have been
> careful to keep them out of places like
> nearby Mexico, and rely on the idea that the
> vast majority of the kids they come in
> contact with have had the full DPT.