http://www.indystar.com/article.php?lillyside14.html
Mother says son is 'not the child he started off to be'
July 14, 2002
Like other autistic children who've become pitiable plaintiffs in the dozens of lawsuits against vaccine makers, John Bailey thrived as a baby.
"He was perfect at birth," said his mother, Cheryl Bailey, of Amory, Miss. "He was alert, he made eye contact. There was nothing unusual about John. He was just a happy baby. On his first birthday, he was able to say 'dog' and 'bark.' "
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His second year of life would bring the start of the horrors that still plague John and his parents.
"His eyes would dart away when he looked at you," his mother said. "He wasn't gaining new words or physical skills. He lost weight."
Within a year it only got worse.
John would flap his arms nonstop, rock his body back and forth, continuously make buzzing sounds, or scream for hours. He stopped talking and, like many autistic children, suffered bouts of severe diarrhea.
"We went from doctor to doctor to doctor looking for answers. Financially, I cannot begin to tell you the toll this has taken," said Cheryl Bailey, who quit her job as a food company merchandiser to care for John. She and her husband, Marshall, a truck driver, also have an older son, who is healthy.
It wasn't until John was 5 that the Baileys got a clue to his problems.
While driving, Cheryl Bailey heard radio commentator Phyllis Schlafly discussing the alleged link between autism and mercury-based preservatives in childhood vaccines.
"I literally ran my car off the road. I said, 'That's it. That's what happened to my son.' " She remembered a blood test when John was 3 that revealed high levels of mercury.
John had gotten the full complement of childhood vaccinations, which contained the mercury-based preservative thimerosal, she said. The Food and Drug Administration in 1999 concluded that many childhood vaccines contained mercury in amounts higher than federal guidelines for humans, and it asked drugmakers to stop using thimerosal.
The Baileys decided to file suit in Mississippi against several vaccine makers and Eli Lilly and Co., which developed thimerosal and sold it from the 1940s to 1991. Their suit is one of three handled by the law firm of Miller & Associates of Alexandria, Va.
"I think there's just a point of accountability," Cheryl Bailey said of the lawsuit.
Through word of mouth, she has become an adviser to parents of autistic children, who call her at all hours seeking help to cope with the horrors of autism.
Bailey said her younger son will need special care the rest of his life, although the worst of his autistic symptoms have eased.
Benefiting from years of therapy that's ongoing, John, now 9, "is a real joy to be around," his mother said. "Last month he learned how to swing on a swing, and he can zip and unzip a zipper. We enjoy our son."
But her voice breaks as she talks of what could have been.
"He's not the child he started off to be. He lost his childhood. And my older son lost his brother."
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