On August 4, 1986 our third child was born, a beautiful 8
lb 2 oz boy, whom we named Sean Philip. We brought him home 3 days later to
join his 8 year old sister and 6 year old brother. Life seemed so perfect, the
older two in school and Sean and I spent our days together and had our own
little routine.
On October 14, 1986 I phoned the doctor to make an
appointment for Sean as he had a runny nose and coughed quite a bit the night
before. The doctor examined him that afternoon, told me he had a “slight cold”
and that there was nothing to worry about. He had a fever of “about” 100, just
some rest, saline drops in his nose, and give him some cough syrup for his
cough. He then mentioned getting Sean started on his vaccines. I questioned
this due to the fact Sean was not feeling well, that was the purpose of my
visit. He explained that “they” had found it was safe to give the vaccines when
a child had a runny nose. He showed me the insert for the vaccine. Still questioning
the fact that Sean had a fever, the doctor said “no problem there either”.
Still not quite feeling right, but being so pressured by the doctor, I gave
in.Sean received the DPT and polio vaccines.
This is when the nightmare began......
Sean screamed from the time we left the doctors office,
all the way to pick up his brother and sister at school. He continued until we
got home and I tried to feed him, he fought the bottle, refusing to eat. I held him, trying to
console him and he finally fell asleep in my arms while I was trying to prepare
dinner. My husband came home and helped me with him, trying to feed him when he
woke up, Sean took a little of the bottle, about 1 oz., then refused and
started screaming again. Now this baby was an eater, 6 oz. per feeding every 3
hours.
I was up all night with Sean, walking, rocking, singing,
trying to console him. Finally about 4 AM, probably from sheer exhaustion, he
fell asleep. But the only way he would stay asleep was sitting in his chair.
At 7 AM on October 15, 1986, our day began again. Asking
my daughter as I always did to give Sean his bottle after she was ready for
school and I would fix her lunch. She kept saying, Mom, he won’t take this
bottle. I told her not to worry, with his stuffy nose sometimes a baby won’t
take a bottle, and I would feed him when I got back home.
He still wouldn’t eat an hour later, so I thought, a bath
would help him relax and maybe he would eat. I noticed when I was dressing him
after his bath the injection site on his leg was red and hot to the touch. (I
had remembered this from my older kids) I talked to him and I will never forget
this, he gave me the sweetest smile I had ever seen. He still wouldn’t really eat all day, remained overly fussy. I
finally got him to sleep around 2:45, called a friend to ask her to bring the
other kids home from school explaining to her what was going on. Sean woke up
about 3:30, I changed him and tried to feed him, he took maybe 1 oz. of
formula. He was “moaning”, that is the
only way I can explain this. I laid down with him on my chest, got him to
sleep, laid him in his crib, knowing it was around 4:30 and dinner needed to be
fixed.
At 5:15 my husband came home, we sat down to eat dinner,
no sooner started eating, and Sean cried out. My husband went in to get him and
said he was fine, looking at his mobile, and I could finish eating before
feeding him. Went in to check on him
after I finished eating and he had gone back to sleep. I made sure his diaper
wasn’t wet, put the blanket on him, and kissed his cheek. Told my husband I had
to run and get formula and bread, and that Sean’s baptism pictures were in and
I would be back in 15 minutes. I ran to the store, got home, finished cleaning
the dinner dishes up, looked at the clock and it was 6:45. I could not believe
Sean was still sleeping after not really eating all night and day.
I went in the room, decided I would wake him up no matter
what, and all I could do was scream. I will never forget that awful scene. My
husband came running, Heather and Patrick ran in, we were trying to get them
out of the room, my husband went running to the phone to dial 911 but deep down
I think we both knew it was too late.
On October 17, 1986, exactly two months after Sean was
baptized, we said our final farewell to our baby.
SIDS, was what the autopsy said. Ironically, the day Sean
died, October 15, 1986, there was an article in USA Today about vaccines. I
questioned the coroner about this, but got the response of, some babies just
quit breathing with no explained reason, but vaccines cannot cause this.
We filed for compensation, our case was finally heard in
April of 1997, 11 years after Sean died. We lost the case. I have nothing good
to say about the Compensation Act. We were treated like terrible parents. They
could not believe I did not call the doctor over some of the symptoms. But in
all the forms the doctors give you after vaccines, these were expected
reactions.
Looking back our older two had reactions to the DPT
vaccine. Luckily not severe. We have had two more children since Sean died,
they are not vaccinated.
I tell my story so other parents do not have to go through
the heartbreak that we did.
Valerie Moline
Raytown, MO