MMR Killed My Daughter
Daily Mail (UK) 18/5/04
by Bonnie Estridge
  
Last week the parents of 1,000 children allegedly damaged by the MMR
vaccine were sent letters by one of the drugs' manufacturers threatening
them with huge legal costs if they refused to drop their claims for
compensation.  One mother, Carol Buxton, found the news particularly
shocking.  Thirteen years ago her daughter fell ill and died following the
MMR jab but Carol, a travel consultant who lives with her police officer
husband Tony and three sons in Northampton, DID get her day in court - with
astonishing conclusions.  Here she reveals how she made the Government
accept liability.
  
When I heard of this latest twist in the MMR debacle, my blood ran cold.
Why should these parents be intimidated into dropping their claims for
compensation?  If anyone should believe that they are right to fight on,
its's me.  For not only did my daughter fall ill after she was injected
with the triple jab, she died as a direct result of it.
  
How can I be so sure?  Because I was paid £85,000 in compensation for her
death by the Government.
  
The decision that MMR led to my only daughter's death was confirmed by
doctors and agreed at a tribunal.
  
So what I want to know is: why did the the Government admit liability to me
when it is villifying so many others?
  
  
I will never forget the moment I opened the door of Hannah's nursery on a
winter's night 13 years ago.  The room was warm but I felt a chill
throughout my body - I sensed something was wrong.  I looked into the cot
and froze.  My baby had died in her sleep - it was just 2 months before her
third birthday.  I felt shock, panic and a stabbing emptiness as well as
anguish.  Hannah had died from one of the hundreds of fits she suffered
during her short life.  My husband Tony and our three sons were devastated.
  
The Department of Health was forced to listen to me and two other families
whose children also died, when we brought our case.
  
But it was only after her death that they paid compensation, admitting that
the brain damage she suffered was directly attributed to MMR.  So what
price do today's parents have to pay before anyone will listen?
  
We didn't go to court because our daughter died.  We had been trying for
compensation for some time before because Hannah was very disabled and we
wanted her to have some kind of financial security.
  
She was suffering up to 40 fits a day but we were told that it would take
months or years before a decision could be made.  But 2 years after she
died our case was heard and the link between her illness and MMR was
agreed.
  
Our nightmare began when Hannah was 18 months old in October 1988.  She had
been due to have the single measles vaccine at 13 months but had a cold so
our GP and I decided it should not be given.
  
I had no misgivings about my baby having the single measles vaccine as my
sons, now in their 20s, had all had it with no ill effects.
  
As we had already booked a holiday we would have been away at the time of
the next available appointment.
  
Unfortunately the third time Hannah was called to be vaccinated was the
first week the MMR jab was introduced.
  
I thought nothing of it at all.  It seemed a good idea to get everything
over in one go.  She was fine after it - but a week later, she developed a
very high temperature and became very red in the face.
  
I called the doctor out and asked  him whether he thought there was any
link with the vaccine but he said this was highly unlikely and diagnosed
her as having 'slapface syndrome' - a mild virus which causes a high
temperature and a marked redness of the face.
  
I gave her some Calpol to try to bring her temperature down and put her to
bed.  When I went to tuck the boys up, all was quiet in Hannah's nursery.
But as I opened the door to look in on her, I could hear a strange noise.
I froze - she was having convulsions and her eyes were staring and glazed.
  
I stripped her clothes off and made sure she couldn't bang her head on the
side of the cot, then called the doctor.
  
He arrived minutes later.  He looked alarmed because she wasn't calming
down at all and suggested I take her to the hospital which would be quicker
than calling an ambulance.
  
A neighbour drove us there and when we arrived Hannah was rushed away for
tests.  It took almost four hours to stop the fits, then, heavily sedated,
she stayed in intensive care for a week.
  
I mentioned the MMR but I certainly didn't make a fuss about it because I
could see they were more concerned with what was happening at the moment:
they had to stop Hannah having these fits.
  
The doctors said they didn't think the vaccine had caused it.  They
explained that it was quite common for babies to have febrile convulsions
when they had a high temperature due to a virus.  There was no mention of
the fact that she might be brain-damaged.
  
Tony and I were terrified when we took her home because she was just not
right.  She was jittery - having always been calm - and had stopped
talking.
  
I felt very frightened that she would have more fits, although she'd been
put on medication to prevent them.
  
Two weeks later the fits started again.  When a brain scan showed nothing,
Tony and I embarked on a treadmill of hospital visits, including to Great
Ormond Street, in an effort to find out what was causing them.
  
Blanks were drawn everywhere we went.  Epilepsy was suggested but there was
no family history of it or anything on the brain - such as a tumour - to
indicate why she might have become epileptic.  By then, Hannah was having
anything from one to 40 fits a day of varying intensity.
  
Looking back, I don't know how I coped.  I had the three boys to look after
too and we tried to make family life normal.  But how could it be?  I never
felt safe to leave Hannah for a minute.  It was so stressful to see her
suffer.
  
Hannah was definitely not normal; she had been slow in walking even before
having the MMR jab but I was told that some children take awhile to catch
up and by the time she was two, she'd be fine.
  
Now she was frankly backward.  She had virtually stopped talking - the only
word she ever said now was 'Mummy' which broke my heart whenever she said
it and she always had an unfocused look in her eyes.
  
She was never diagnosed as autistic but I wouldn't be surprised if this was
the case.
  
Over the 18 months that we tried to find out what was wrong with Hannah I
could see the doctors were bewildered.
  
I did not mistrust any of them even when I found out that a strain of the
MMR being used in this country had already been banned in Canada.  I truly
felt that the doctors were unaware of this but in hindsight I'm not
completely sure they were.
  
As it turned out the MMR vaccination was banned in Japan in 1992 and that
country went back to single vaccines from then on.  
  
The day Hannah died everything had been perfect.  We'd visited my
sister-in-law who had just had a baby and Hannah seemed to be enjoying
herself.
  
That night I went to look in on her and found her dead in her cot.  She'd
had a fit in her sleep.
  
Before Hannah died, Tony and I had been terribly worried about how we would
look after her as she got older.   We are a comfortably off family, though
not wealthy by any means and we thought Hannah would need very special care
as she got older.  We didn't know how we would be able to afford it while
also giving our other children a reasonable standard of living.
  
During Hannah's illness I always felt there was a connection with the MMR
vaccine but my opinion was either dismissed by doctors or they genuinely
appeared not to know.
  
Then I heard about the Vaccine Damage Unit, a body set up by the Government
to look into any case where a person might have been injured by a vaccine.
Tony and I decided we would apply for compensation, which would perhaps
help us to look after Hannah.
  
Every so often I received letters from the Unit saying the matter was still
being looked into.  But two weeks before Hannah died, I had a letter saying
her case was on-going and would probably take months or years to reach a
conclusion.
  
Just after she died, I had another letter saying that the MMR link was
unproven and I became very angry.  I believed that they wanted to get rid
of this 'problem'.
  
So we went to appeal, deciding to represent ourselves.  We went to the
tribunal in March 1992.  There had been an autopsy, as this had been a case
of sudden death but no conclusions had been drawn from it.  There were half
a dozen people on the tribunal, a mix of lay people and doctors.
  
I was questioned thoroughly for an hour and a half then they said I would
be informed whether I would be awarded compensation by post, as all the
facts now had to be carefully considered.
  
Four months later we received a letter which included the following:
'Hannah Buxton was disabled as a result of a vaccination to which the claim
relates'.  It also stated: 'The tribunal found it particularly significant
that the reaction to the MMR vaccination was exactly at the expected period
of time following this vaccination.'
  
'This reaction was severe and prolonged and therefore the development and
progress were halted and if anything, deteriorated to a marked and obvious
extent.  We note this evidence is uncontested and to our minds argues
strongly in favour of the award.'
  
In other words the Government had not argued against the case and were
admitting liability.
  
We were awarded £20,000 - the maximum amount allowed at the time; this was
followed by another £65,000 four months later because the original payment
was deemed not to be enough.
  
I really didn't want to know about the money.  I just needed to know why
Hannah had become so ill and why she had died.
  
The most important thing for me was that someone had confirmed what I had
always suspected - that the MMR jab had caused this; that MMR had done so
much damage to her brain that she became severely handicapped and started
having fits.
  
That is why I am so angry that the parents who believe MMR has damaged
their children are not being listened to.  I have heard that a number of
those autistic children also have fits.  I cannot imagine what it must be
like caring for these children and I have the utmost respect and admiration
for those who do.  They must be listened to, given answers and helped.
  
Does a child have to die before it its acknowledged to have been damaged by
MMR?  Is it not enough that so many parents have a disabled child to look
after?
  
Of course, not every child is damaged by the MMR jab.  But if there is any
doubt, then that case should be investigated individually - the parents
should not simply be fobbed off as a group because they are fighting
together.
  
There should be a tribunal for each and every one of them to prove or
disprove that there is a link between their child's illness and MMR.
  
Someone needs to come clean about MMR as this problem goes on and on.  Our
children are geting pushed into having this vaccination and doctors should
listen to parents when they say they are afraid of what might happen.
 

The Govenment should not deny parents the option of the single measles
vaccine.
  
Hannah was my precious only girl and barely more than a baby when she died.
Now I want today's children to have a better chance.
  
There must be a proper investigation into MMR - drug companies which are
paying doctors to conduct their own research surely cannot give unbiased
answers.
  
Vaccine damage is known and recognised.  Last year more than 1,000 Japanese
children were awarded compensation after being damaged by MMR vaccination.
Those families had been battling for more than 10 years to have their day
in court.
  
Why can't parents in this country be given the chance to be heard - and
taken seriously - now?
 
 
 
 
 
--
DEFINITION * TREATMENT * PREVENTION
Autism is 1 in 150 children today, 1 in 68 families!  TAAP (The Autism
Autoimmunity Project) is a non-profit charity dedicated to obtaining
funding for independent research into the cause, treatment and prevention
of autism and other autoimmune disorders.  Please visit our website for
more information at http://www.AutismAutoimmunityProject.org and help us
put an end to this silent epidemic!!!  Know the Cause, FUND the Cure! 
 


--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .