Schafer Autism Report June 18, 2003

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The “Smoking Gun” evidence of a vaccine-mercury-autism connection appears to get another shade denser.

A study of mercury levels in the baby hair of children who were later diagnosed with autism has produced startling results. The babies had far lower levels of mercury in their hair than other infants, leading to speculation that autistic children either do not absorb mercury or, more likely, cannot excrete it.

The results will be seized upon by parents who blame vaccines containing the mercury-based preservative thimerosal for their children’s autism, some of whom are suing health authorities in the US and Canada. (The MMR vaccine that some accuse of triggering autism, despite a lack of credible evidence, does not contain mercury.) But while the study’s findings support the theory that some children have a genetic fault that makes them far more susceptible to mercury poisoning, the results certainly do not prove this, or that thimerosal is involved.

The difference in mercury levels in hair may be a sign of a more general problem in dealing with metals or it could simply be an anomaly that reveals little about what is happening elsewhere in the body.

But if the results are confirmed, the conclusions of studies looking at the safety of low levels of mercury (New Scientist print edition, 14

June) could also be called into question. Many of these studies relied on mercury levels in hair as a measure of exposure.

Autism experts say the findings are intriguing, but all emphasise the need for further studies. Although the findings are to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, some critics say the results are rather too striking, and point out that the researchers who did the work all believe that thimerosal is to blame for autism.

The team leader, Louisiana doctor Amy Holmes, in fact set out to try to prove that autistic children had been exposed to high levels of mercury. She obtained baby hair from parents who had kept the first cuttings and sent off a few samples for analysis. To her surprise, mercury levels were low.

Holmes has now done a bigger study, comparing mercury levels in first baby haircuts from 94 autistic children with those of 45 other children. The mean level in the baby hair of children later diagnosed as autistic was 0.47 parts per million, compared with 3.63 ppm in the others, the team found - nearly nine-tenths lower.

What is more, the more severe the autism, the lower the mercury levels. The mean levels of children with mild, moderate and severe autism were 0.79, 0.46 and 0.21 ppm respectively.

Most of this mercury came from the mothers. The main sources of exposure, according to the team, were mercury amalgam fillings, Rho D immunoglobulin injections containing thimerosal given to Rhesus negative mothers, and heavy consumption of fish (defined as more than five fish meals a month).

In the control group, hair mercury rose in line with the mothers’ exposure. But the baby hair of autistic children had consistently low mercury levels, even when the mothers’ exposure was high, the team found. The results will appear in the International Journal of Toxicology in September.

One explanation, says team member Mark Blaxill of the campaign group SafeMinds of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a problem with metal uptake. If so, autistic children might also be deficient in metals essential for brain development such as zinc, iron and copper.

Alternatively, some children may have a problem excreting mercury. The metal might then build up in the brain, producing autism. Most mercury is excreted in urine and faeces, but the lack of mercury in hair might be a sign that the metal is being retained in cells rather than getting into the blood, the researchers suggest.

Mercury is one of the suspected causes of autism, with proponents arguing that there are many similarities between autism and mercury poisoning. But a review published earlier in 2003 pointed out that poisoning by the different forms of mercury found in fish, fillings and thimerosal has effects distinct from autism, and concluded that what little evidence there is does not support any link.

Despite this, some doctors, including Holmes, have been experimenting with giving autistic children metal-binding agents, or chelators, to rid the body of heavy metals. “They are loaded to the gills with metals,” Holmes, who was unavailable for comment, claimed in 2002. The only published evidence, however, is a very small study from 1976 suggesting autistic children have higher levels of lead in their blood.

Critics such as child neurologist Emanuel Dicicco-Bloom of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey says concluding that autistic children accumulate mercury on the basis of low levels in hair is a big logical leap that is not justified by the evidence.

Even some of those who blame heavy metals such as mercury for autism echo his warnings not to try potentially dangerous therapies such as chelation. Parents should wait for the results of the clinical trials about to begin, they say.

And Dicicco-Bloom’s colleague Mike Gochfield, who does mercury testing, says that the levels of mercury in the control group are way above what he would expect for children in the US. Blaxill’s response is that no one has ever tested first baby haircuts before, so there are no “normal” results to compare to.

The lab that did the testing was not told which children the samples were from, he adds. And according to unpublished work by Steve Lindow and Steve Haslow at the University of Hull in the UK, hair mercury levels in newborns can be even higher than in the mother.

They suspect that mothers may actively transport metals to the fetus. But on average the first baby hair in Holmes’ study was cut at 18 months old, so this would not explain the high levels in the controls.

Astonishingly, only one other published study, from 1985, has compared mercury levels in the hair of children with and without autism. That study found no difference, but it did find lower levels of metals such as calcium, copper and chromium - levels that were so distinctive they could be used as a “diagnostic tool for autism”.

Other experts say the theory that autistic children are particularly at risk from heavy metals is at least plausible. “This kind of gene-environment interaction is not incompatible with the known heritability of autism,” says Simon Baron-Cohen of Cambridge University. “If these results hold up, metal studies on the brain could be revealing.”

After remaining stable for 20 years, the rate of reported autism has been rising steadily since 1990 in Europe and America alike. This devastating brain disorder is characterized by an extremely limited range of activities and interests and lack of the capacity to communicate with others, take their perspective, or share their experience (see Harvard Mental Health Letter, June and July 2001). A recent survey of California children suggests that the current trend is not due merely to changing diagnostic standards. Epidemiologists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, using different methods, have confirmed the rise in autism diagnoses while expressing more doubt about its causes. Meanwhile, other research has been refuting one of the most popular - and most alarming - explanations for the trend.

The number of cases of autism reported to state regional centers for the treatment of developmental disorders in California nearly quadrupled between 1987 and 1998, while the state’s population was rising by only 20%. Diagnoses rose 16% between 1997 and 1998 alone. The state legislature commissioned epidemiologists from the University of California at Davis to study the problem.

Using clinic records, a diagnostic interview, and a questionnaire answered by parents, the researchers compiled information on nearly 700 children with developmental disorders in two age groups, one born in the mid-1980s and the other in the mid-1990s. About half of the children were diagnosed as autistic and half as retarded but not autistic.

The researchers did not find that parents and professionals had begun to use the label of autism more freely. The autistic symptoms of older and younger children were similar. About 20% of autistic children were misclassified as retarded but not autistic. That proportion was no higher in the older children than it was in the younger children, so misclassification could not explain the change. The upsurge in autism seemed to be real.

The CDC researchers surveyed children ages 310 in five counties of metropolitan Atlanta in 1996. They identified autism not only by referrals to clinics, as in the California study, but also by seeking other sources including children’s hospitals, private physicians, and above all - 40% of the cases - school records.

They found nearly 1,000 children with autistic spectrum disorders, which included not only classic autism (two-thirds of the cases) but also milder related syndromes such as pervasive developmental disorder and Asperger’s syndrome (normal intelligence and adequate language along with more or less severe autistic social and emotional deficiencies). That represented a prevalence of 34 cases in every 10,000 children - similar to the result of the California study and much higher than the rate indicated by earlier research. In studies conducted before 1985, for example, the rate of autism was about seven times lower, 5 per 10,000. Three American surveys in the early 1990s found similarly low rates.

But some skepticism is expressed in the CDC report and especially by an editorial commentator in the January 2003 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, where the results were published. The commentator argues that reports of autism could be rising because the public and professionals are becoming more aware of its existence and sensitive to its symptoms. More services are available, too. Federal law now requires states to provide special education programs for autistic children at public expense, and there is new evidence that some autistic symptoms respond to intensive behavioral treatment at an early age.

The California researchers acknowledge that the ability to notice and report signs of autism might have been improving. In California, among children born in the 1980s, 50% of autistic children were also diagnosed as retarded, compared with a much lower 22% among children born in the 1990s. Parents might have become more sensitive to autism in children who were not retarded.

A popular suspect in autism is the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, which came into widespread use around 1990. Children are given the vaccine, which contains viruses that could theoretically infect the brain, at about 15 months of age. Among parents of the younger children in the California survey, more than 20% had avoided or delayed immunizing one of their children because of this fear.

To the relief of public health officials and parents concerned about contagious diseases, it is becoming increasingly clear that immunization is not the source of the problem. In the California study, developmental regression - reversal of previously normal intellectual and emotional growth, which should be seen if the vaccination were causing harm - did not occur more often in children born in the 1990s than in those born in the 1980s.

And northern European studies have been providing further evidence that vaccines are innocent. A Danish survey included all of the 500,000 children born in the country between 1991 and 1998. After adjustments for age, sex, birth weight, and the mother’s education and social class, children who received the MMR vaccine - about 80% of the total - had a slightly lower rate of autistic disorders than those who were not vaccinated. And autistic symptoms were no more likely to appear shortly after vaccination than at any other time.

A survey of more than 500,000 Finnish children who received the MMR vaccine in the early 1980s confirms the Danish results. The number of children brought to hospitals for observation because of newly recognized autistic symptoms did not rise in the three months after vaccination.

The concern about vaccines results partly from the use of methyl mercury (also called thiomersal or thimerosal), a preservative that contains a small amount of the toxic heavy metal. It was removed from vaccines administered in the United States in 1999, but it is still used in other countries and regarded as safe by the World Health Organization.

A recent American study indicates that blood levels of mercury did not become unusually high in children who received thiomersal-containing vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B, and influenza at 2, 4, and 6 months of age. They were compared with controls who took the same vaccines packaged without the preservative. Mercury levels were the same in both groups and well below the amount considered dangerous to health. The mercury in thiomersal also passed out of the body much faster than expected - a half-life of about one week rather than seven weeks - so it did not build up with repeated vaccinations.

These results should reassure parents of newborns facing vaccination. For now, no other satisfying environmental explanation for the rise in autism is evident. The University of California at Davis is establishing a research center to look for possible effects of pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), heavy metals, and other contaminants. The CDC is tracking autism levels in several states using the same methods employed in the Atlanta research. Further study should tell us whether the rise in rates is in the eyes of the beholders or represents a true increase in the number of autism cases.

Byrd R, et al. “Report to the Legislature on the Principal Findings from The Epidemiology of Autism in California: A Comprehensive Pilot Study” (2002). http://mindinstitute.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu /news/report.htm Department of Developmental Services, State of California. “Changes in the Population of Persons with Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders in California’s Developmental Services System: 1987 through 1998. A Report to the Legislature, March 1, 1999.” www.dds.ca.gov/autism/pdf /autism_report_1999.pdf Fombonne E. “The Prevalence of Autism,” Journal of the American Medical Association (January 1, 2003): Vol. 289, No. 1, pp. 8789.

Pichichero ME, et al. “Mercury Concentrations and Metabolism in Infants Receiving Vaccines Containing Thiomersal: A Descriptive Study,” Lancet (November 30, 2002): Vol. 360, No. 9347, pp. 173741.

Yeargin-Allsop M, et al. “Prevalence of Autism in a U.S. Metropolitan Area,” Journal of the American Medical Association (January 1, 2003): Vol. 289, No. 1, pp. 4955.

The authors of this study sought to examine the prevalence of autistic traits in the general population using a newly established quantitative measure, the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). Given the evidence for a broad range of severity of autistic traits, they sought to further define a population at risk for social impairments who may fail to meet full criteria for autistic disorders (Autism, Asperger’s, pervasive development disorder-not otherwise specified [PDD-NOS]).

The authors used a population of 788 twin pairs, 7 to 15 years of age, randomly selected from participants in the Missouri Twin Study. The SRS is 65-item parent and/or teacher report questionnaire that inquires about reciprocal social behavior, social use of language, and restricted/stereotypic behaviors or interests, that had previously been shown to distinguish PDDs from other psychiatric conditions and normal controls. The reports included 219 male-male pairs, 319 female-female pairs, and 250 opposite-sex pairs. Mean age was 11 to 12 years. Zygosity was assessed by parent interview. Data were analyzed by use of path models to ascertain sex-specific genetic influences.

Results were plotted separately for boys and girls and showed a continuous distribution. The mean scores were 33% higher in boys vs girls with no significant age effects. Severity of traits for PDD-NOS diagnosis was found in 1.4% of boys and 0.3% of girls. The traits seemed to be moderately to highly heritable, influenced by the same additive genetic factors in both boys and girls. There was no evidence for nonadditive genetic factors. Further analysis revealed no evidence for sex-specific genetic influences.

The lower incidence in girl twins suggests a female protection from vulnerability to autistic traits. This protection may arise from environmental factors that may improve development of reciprocal social behaviors in females, who may be more sensitive than boys to environmental influence. Alternatively, girls may have an elevated threshold for phenotypic expression of a trait that is expressed on paternally transmitted X-chromosome. Future genetic linkage studies may further elucidate these mechanisms.

Folate, Vit. B12, Homocysteine, & the MTHFR 677C T Polymorphism in Anxiety and Depression The Hordaland Homocysteine Study

An association between depression and folate status has been demonstrated in clinical studies, whereas data are sparse on the relationship between depression and other components of 1-carbon metabolism such as vitamin B12, homocysteine, and the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase 677C T polymorphism. The relationship between anxiety and these components is less well known. This study examined the associations between folate, total homocysteine, vitamin B12, and the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase 677C T polymorphism, and anxiety and depression in a large population-based study.

Our results provide further evidence of a role of impaired 1-carbon metabolism in depression.

From the Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care (Drs Bjelland, Tell, and Vollset), Locus for Homocysteine and Related Vitamins (Drs Bjelland, Tell, Vollset, and Ueland), and Department of Pharmacology (Drs Refsum and Ueland), University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.

Ingvar Bjelland, MD; Grethe S. Tell, PhD, MPH; Stein Emil Vollset, MD, DrPH; Helga Refsum, MD; Per Magne Ueland, MD Methods Anxiety and depression, measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, were assessed in 5948 subjects aged 46 to 49 years (mean, 47.4 years) and 70 to 74 years (mean, 71.9 years) from the Hordaland Homocysteine Study cohort. By means of logistic regression models, anxiety and depression scores were examined in relation to the factors listed above.

Overall, hyperhomocysteinemia (plasma total homocysteine level ?15.0 µmol/L [?2.02 mg/dL]) (odds ratio, 1.90; 95% confidence interval, 1.11-3.25) and T/T methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase genotype (odds ratio, 1.69; 95% confidence interval, 1.09-2.62), but not low plasma folate or vitamin B12 levels, were significantly related to depression without comorbid anxiety disorder. Plasma folate level was inversely associated with depression only in the subgroup of middle-aged women. None of the investigated parameters showed a significant relationship to anxiety.

Shot Forced On Newborn Over Parents’ Objections in Colorado Orwellian nightmare for ‘persecuted’ couple as armed guards ensure infant’s vaccination

What was supposed to be a joyous occasion – the birth of their first child – turned out to be an Orwellian nightmare for a young Colorado couple whose newborn was vaccinated for hepatitis B over their religious and philosophical objections, while armed guards stood by to prevent them from intervening.

“It makes me feel like the country I live in is no better than communist China or the old Soviet Union or Nazi Germany, and that’s a very sobering and scary outlook,” the father, who does not want to be named, told WorldNetDaily.

The saga of “Baby M,” as the family calls her to protect her privacy, started with an emergency Caesarean section at St. Mary’s Hospital in in Grand Junction, Colo., on April 2. The couple, who has no medical insurance, had attempted to home birth but wound up rushing to the emergency room after the baby’s position went transverse.

“Baby M” was born without complication. But as the new parents were basking in the afterglow of the birth, a neonatal doctor informed them a vaccination was in order for the baby and pressured the couple to sign a consent form.

“He told me the initial screening test [on the mother] had come back positive for hepatitis B. I told him that was impossible,” said the father. “And he said, ‘Well, I didn’t think it was very likely either so I had them run it again and I’ll probably get those test results back soon. If those test results come back positive again, then I’m going to have to vaccinate the baby.’”

According to the couple’s personal physician, the screening test gives a false-positive 40 to 60 percent of the time.

After the second test also came back positive, the doctor insisted the couple sign the consent form. Citing text he referenced in a medical guide, he informed the parents that the baby must be vaccinated within 12 hours of birth, if the mother has hepatitis B.

Said the father: “We said that we weren’t going to authorize him to do so because we did not believe she had hepatitis B and that we believe vaccinations would not be good for the baby even if she did, based upon our religious convictions and also medical evidence.”

While not eschewing modern medicine, the couple prefers to avoid it when possible and has a strong conviction against vaccinations.

“We believe in God, and that God has created us in his image. In being created in God’s image, we are given his perfect immune system. We are bestowed with His gift, the immune system. We believe it is sacrilegious and a violation of our sacred religious beliefs to violate what God has given us by showing a lack of faith in God. Immunizations are a lack of faith in God and His protection, the immune system,” the father maintains.

The couple had also done extensive research into the potential serious dangers of vaccinations.

WorldNetDaily reported last week that various studies indicate there is epidemiological evidence of a link between neurodevelopmental disorders and mercury exposure from childhood vaccines. Many medical experts suspect vaccines may be behind a growing epidemic of autism in American children. According to data provided by the U.S. Department of Education, most states experienced a doubling of the rate of children diagnosed with full-syndrome autism over the past few years.

“U.S. infants are exposed to mercury levels from their childhood-immunization schedule that far exceed the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] and FDA [Food and Drug Administration]-established maximum permissible levels for the daily oral ingestion of methyl mercury,” wrote Dr. Mark Geier, president of the Genetic Centers of America, in a recently published study in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

According to Geier, the EPA limit is 0.1 micrograms of mercury per kilogram body weight per day.

“It doesn’t take a genius to do the calculations when on their day of birth children are given the hepatitis B vaccine, which is 12.5 micrograms of mercury,” Geier told Insight magazine. “The average newborn weighs between six and seven pounds, so they would be allowed 0.3 micrograms of mercury – but in this one shot they are getting 12.5 micrograms. That’s 39 times more than allowed by law.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 12,000 infants are infected with hepatitis B every year by their mother during birth. Infants and children who become infected with hepatitis B are at the highest risk of developing life-long infection, which often leads to death from liver disease and liver cancer. Approximately 25 percent of children who become infected with life-long hepatitis are expected to die of a related disease as adults.

The National Network for Immunization Information, or NNii, a resource for parents recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, or AAP, maintains the vaccine is “safe.”

NNii addresses the risk of mercury in the vaccine in a fact sheet posted on its website. It explains that Thimerosal, a derivative of mercury, has been used in “small amounts” as a preservative in some vaccine and states “there is no evidence that any child has been harmed by exposure to the amounts of Thimerosal in vaccines.”

“In addition, the risk of disease from not immunizing a child is greater than the risk of exposure to low levels of mercury in Thimerosal-containing vaccines,” the fact sheet states, but then adds the U.S. Public Health Service and the AAP recommended reducing or eliminating the use of Thimerosal-containing vaccines “to make safe vaccines even safer.”

NNii states “infants are at high risk for hepatitis B infection if their mothers are infected with the virus” and recommends these infants be given the hepatitis B vaccine “within 12 hours of birth.”

NNii adds that most children who become infected with hepatitis B are born to mothers who are not infected with hepatitis B, and as a result, further recommends all children be vaccinated.

The AAP recommends the first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine be administered to infants born to infected mothers “before they leave the hospital.”

Faced with opposition from the parents over the vaccination of “Baby M,” the doctor called in hospital social service worker Joni Vohs, who reportedly threatened the parents with the loss of custody of their baby if they did not comply with the vaccination schedule.

Next, hospital administrators called in attorneys who persuaded Chief District Court Judge Charles Buss to hold an emergency, after-hours hearing at the hospital on the basis that the baby’s life would be in danger if she was not vaccinated within hours. The family was given 15 minutes’ notice of the hearing and was unable to secure competent legal help in time.

As the father describes it, he went up against a 10-person panel of attorneys, social workers, hospital administrators and the doctor who argued for the immediate vaccination.

The father pleaded for second opinions. He also pleaded for the judge to wait for the results of a more confirmatory test which were scheduled to arrive in 16 hours.

During the four-hour hearing, the father cited the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and Colorado revised statute, which states there are religious, medical and philosophical exemptions to medical treatment.

Rather than share the 19-year-old’s passion for U.S. constitutional history, the lawyers reportedly mocked him.

“When I was reading, the lawyers were whispering back and forth almost laughing at me,” the father told WorldNetDaily. “In retrospect, reminding them of the Constitution hurt me more than it helped.”

The judge ruled the baby should be vaccinated immediately and also ordered her put into protective custody with the Mesa County Department of Human Services, which the parents were told meant social-service agents had the ability to intervene in the medical treatment of the baby at any time and could take physical custody of the baby if deemed necessary to “protect the child’s best interests.”

A call for comment from Buss was referred to judicial administrator Judy Vanderleest. Vanderleest told WorldNetDaily the judge would not comment on the case. She also said the emergency, after-hours hearing held at the hospital was the first such hearing held that she could remember.

Matt Weber, an attorney who represented St. Mary’s Hospital told WorldNetDaily he was “not authorized to speak on behalf of the hospital on this case.”

With armed guards lining the ICU, the first of three ordered vaccinations was administered to the baby. According to the family’s physician, the baby immediately exhibited the typical side effects of the vaccine.

By the time the second shot was due to be administered, the father had succeeded in persuading county social worker Dan Overmeyer the vaccination posed more risk than good for the baby’s health. Overmeyer opted to not administer any more shots and recommended the release of “Baby M” from protective custody.

While the baby appears to be doing fairly well, the parents fear the damage is already done, and can only wait and wonder when the adverse effects of the vaccine will appear.

“Most of the doctors that I’ve talked to from around the country that know about vaccinations have said that it takes months and sometimes years for things to show up,” the father told WorldNetDaily. “The scary thing is that there are babies that just die out of the blue supposedly for no reason. ... There’s a lot of evidence that these SIDS [Sudden Infant Death Syndrome] victims are actually a result of vaccination.”

The Institute of Medicine, a medical research organization that provides health information to the government, released a report last March that concluded all available evidence shows no link between vaccines and unexplained infant deaths.

Having recently graduated from college with an associate’s degree in telecommunications engineering, the father has now launched a campaign to alert expecting parents about his family’s ordeal. He posted their story online with a link to an article outlining the research behind the dangers of vaccinations.

“I want [parents] to know that their rights are no longer being upheld by our government,” he said. “If people don’t speak out and voice their disapproval and talk to their congressman and make a big deal out of things like this then we will find ourselves very soon in a sort of police state where we have no individual freedoms and the government tells us what to do, what not to do and basically raises our children for us.”

The website includes a link for readers to make contributions to a legal defense fund. The family hopes to raise sufficient funds to sue the hospital. They feel both the hospital staff and the judge persecuted them for their religious conviction against vaccinations.

“The doctor and hospital thought we would be easy targets as we were young and penniless. They do not like people who try to avoid the system and they don’t like anyone to question whether or not their practices are truly in the best interests of the patient,” the father said. “Our aim in legal action would be to get a precedent that protects families from this ever happening again.”

Kim Williams, the director of marketing at St. Mary’s Hospital declined to discuss the case, citing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which outlines patient-confidentiality rules.

Social worker Joni Vohs adamantly denied the hospital would persecute anyone over their religious beliefs or discriminate against them because of a lack of insurance.

“St. Mary’s is a Catholic hospital. We treat everybody regardless of their ability to pay. It’s a very compassionate and caring place.”

After stressing she was bound by confidentiality rules not to discuss the details, Vohs said the “Baby M” case triggered her recollection of another case in which a 13-year-old girl died a “very slow death” because the family belonged to a church that “believed in prayers over medical treatment” and failed to seek treatment for her until she was almost dead.

“Having worked in child protection for 25 years, to allow a child to suffer or die a horrible death is child abuse,” Vohs told WorldNetDaily.

Colorado legislators passed a law as a result of that case which allows the court to step in and override parents’ religious beliefs in the event of a medical emergency. Vohs said this law was applied to the “Baby M” case.

“The hospital doesn’t do anything on a whim. There’s a lot of steps that need to be taken. There was a legal hearing ... and the law was followed,” she said.

She also added that the family’s story posted online “stretches and alters” the truth in the case.

“Baby M’s” father argues there was no emergency and emphasizes that had the staff simply waited the 16 hours for the third, more confirmatory test of the mother’s blood to come back negative, the entire “nightmare” could have been avoided.

The 6-year-old autistic boy from Lafayette was splashing around in the kiddie pool at the Springbrook Pool in Lafayette, while his mom, Gina, and dad, Kyle, took turns keeping an eye on him.

Charlie usually hates the water, but not Saturday. He and his family were attending a birthday party at the local pool.

He had pulled one of his famous “escapes,” something his mother says he does at home all the time.

Down at the other end of the pool, lifeguard Sean Zanoni, 16, was walking by the shallow end on his way to get a drink of water. Sean was on cleanup duty during the 10-minute adult swim period and was not watching the pool.

But he happened to glance into the water and saw a body at the bottom of the pool. Without a thought, Sean jumped in and pulled Charlie from the water.

The little boy lay on the deck, not breathing and his body blue. Finding a very light pulse, Sean immediately began CPR, while someone else called 911.

The lifeguard, on the job for only one week, was scared, but he was in action mode, he recalled Tuesday.

From the other end of the pool, Gina noticed what looking like a purple toy being pulled from the water. It wasn’t until she saw the face that her heart sank. She realized it was her son.

“I just never thought he would be in the big pool,” she said Tuesday through tears.

Despite a thready pulse, Charlie responded to Sean’s efforts. He sputtered back to life and immediately went into shock. Paramedics arrived and took the little boy to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Walnut Creek for further treatment.

Recalling the episode, Gina Hansen had a hard time telling the story without crying. She said she considers the events of that day to be a miracle; the timing occurred as to save her only son.

During adult swim, no one younger than 18 is allowed in the Olympic-size pool, and lifeguards take the 10 minutes to pick up trash and to empty garbage cans. Usually, no lifeguard is on duty during that time.

But Sean was thirsty. It was his path to water that took him past the shallow end of the pool where Charlie lay.

“It was a miracle,” Charlie’s mother said, “that Sean happened to be thirsty at that moment.”

Sean still is amazed at what happened. He was not expecting that his summer job would transform him into a hero for one Lafayette family.

“I thought it would be a summer of watching kids, sitting around and enjoying the sun,” he said.

On Tuesday, his first shift on duty since the incident, Sean met Charlie, who presented his with a homemade card. “Thanks for saving my life,” it said in crayon.

“We wanted to give Sean a reward,” Gina Hansen said, “but there is no price.”

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