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[PROVE Note: Thanks to the Guardian in the UK for this report.  It would be nice if the media in this country would pick up on cases like this here in the US and report on them more often.  It informs parents that there are serious reactions to vaccines that parents need to be aware of to help protect their children.]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/dec/02/health-children

MMR baby 'chatting away' hours before his death, inquest hears

Parents of George Fisher, who died at 18 months, say they could have acted earlier had they been given the right information

George Fisher who died aged 17 months, 10 days after having the MMR triple jab. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

A healthy baby boy who was heard "chatting away on the baby monitor" just hours before he died received an MMR jab shortly after suffering a fever fit that the vaccine may have aggravated, an inquest heard today.

George Fisher, who was 18 months old when he was discovered dead in his cot in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire by his mother, Sarah Fisher, had been given the MMR jab 10 days earlier in January 2006, a coroner heard.

George suffered from febrile convulsions, fits caused by high temperatures. Fisher, 44, and her husband, Christopher, 43, believe the vaccine was "implicated" in their son's death.

They say the temperature-raising effects of the drug on children with febrile convulsions were not explained to them, and that this knowledge might have allowed them to act sooner.

According to Department of Health guidelines, the jab should be given ''with caution''. However, the guidelines do not ban child sufferers of febrile convulsions from receiving it, but rather recommends monitoring their temperatures.

Two doctors confirmed that giving MMR to sufferers such as George was permitted under patient guidelines, with careful watches recommended.

In evidence, Fisher said her son had been a "healthy and robust" child who she had breastfed for 11 months - longer than her other three children.

He was given antibiotics for his febrile illness shortly before he received his MMR jab, and had been "running around playing football with his father"on the Wednesday before he died .

The night before he died, he was "chatting away on the baby monitor", she added.

"He took his bottle of water and I put the quilt over him, stroked his head and said goodnight. I went to bed, heard him drink his water, then throw the bottle on the floor. I heard him shuffling around."

At 8am, his sister Meg, who was sharing a room with him, called out to her.

"I was surprised he was not awake. I tried to wake him, but it was clear he was dead because of his colour, and he was cold," Fisher said.

He had been due to attend a doctor's appointment for his worsening symptoms on the day he died.

She added that she now knew George should have been more closely monitored because of his previous condition.

The coroner heard George was born at a healthy 8lbs 10oz, and came through his routine injection with no side-effects.

Dr Annette Bugaighis, his GP, said the child fell ill on September 25, 2005, after returning from a holiday in Spain, and developed a high temperature.

After suffering a fit at the Overton Park surgery, he was rushed to hospital, where it was found he had suffered febrile convulsion. When admitted, George had a high temperature, stiff neck, puffy eyes, and green-tinged stools.

Both Dr Annette Bugaighis and consultant paediatrician Alan Day of Cheltenham general hospital agreed that he was safe to be given the vaccine on January 9 2006, and that he should be monitored for raised temperature.

"There was nothing obvious in his medical history to explain his sudden death,'' Dr Bugaighis said.

A Department of Health pamphlet advises only that MMR2 should be given "with caution" to those "with an individual or family history of cerebral injury or any other condition in which stress due to fever should be avoided. The physician should be alert to the rise in temperature that may follow."

Mr Fisher said that the family had not been given a patient information leaflet on the MMR precautions to be taken with children who had previously suffered fever. Nor was any verbal advice specific to his circumstances.

"How I remember it, we were told if he had a rising temperature to give him Calpol if he got grizzly. I had been present at all my children's vaccines and it's the same spiel on every occasion," he said.

"Given his condition, they should have been aware of his medical history. At no point were we asked for this before his vaccination."

"If we had been [given the leaflet], we would have gone to hospital much quicker because of the information in that list. We would have been much more concerned than we actually were."

Heather Mitchell, the nurse who gave George his injection, said she trusted his parents' instincts and was satisfied when they told her George was well on the day.

Nurse Mitchell, who vaccinates "in excess" of 1,000 babies a year, said no specific advice was required other then regular checking of temperature.

The Gloucestershire coroner, Alan Crickmore, will hear up to three days of evidence at the Shire Hall, Gloucester, before recording a verdict.

Ten years ago, research led by Dr Andrew Wakefield, a gastroenterologist at London's Royal Free Hospital, prompted fears that the combined Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine was linked to autism.

Despite several studies in Britain, Finland and Japan disproving the connection, anxiety has persisted over the vaccine. Cases of measles have topped 1,000 for the first time in more than a decade, according to information that emerged last week. The Health Protection Agency has attributed the rise to the "relatively low" uptake of the MMR vaccine.

 

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