Jr’s Story:
I’ve written this so many times I finally decided to get smart and write it up and keep it on the hard drive making changes as I need to over time.
Jr’s proper name is Rodney E Delp Jr (hence the JR LOL). He was our second and last child as I was turning 36 3 weeks after delivering him. My pregnancy with him was very typical, I worked until 3 weeks before I delivered him and would have worked longer if he wasn’t such a big baby. The only incident that ever occurred was when I was exposed to scarlet fever via Samantha (our eldest child) when I was two months pregnant. This posed no problems either with the pregnancy or delivery.
He came into this 3rd of September 1997. He weighted in at 9 pounds 7.5 ounces and was 22.5 inches long. He was a very healthy child receiving an 8 at one minute old on the APGAR scoring system and a 9 at five minutes old.
That was the first day of his mercury poisoning. He received his Heb B shortly after birth. His development was very typical reaching all milestones at appropriate ages sitting at 6 months, crawling at 9 months eating cereal at 4 months and baby food at 6 months. He began talking with simple words such as Mama, Dada, Sissy at about 11 or 12 months of age.
He was a bottle fed baby from day one (as nursing his sister was a disaster and I really didn’t want to go thru it again with him). I am very glad I didn’t nurse now (I’ll explain that later). We used a soy formula as his sister didn’t take well to the milk based one so we decided to nip that in the bud from the gate.
He continued to grow and thrive and receive his vaccinations right on schedule. He was a very happy baby that we thought we were spoiling too much for he didn’t want to go to bed at night. The only health problems he had at that age was a mysterious upper respiratory infection at two months of age and an occasional ear infection.
On December 1, 1998 everything changed, (but it was so gradual that we didn’t even notice it until the following May) he received another series of vaccinations that day to include a booster DTP/ Hep B and the MMR vaccines. In essence in one visit he received 3 jabs but the results were 7 vaccines!!!
On the 17th of December Jr began to walk (he like his sister and myself was a late walker) and from the beginning he was a toe-walker (a very early sign of autism) like most new walkers as they are trying to get their balance in check. The other signs of autism (loss or lack of speech, the appearance of deafness, the fixations on things, the stims, lack of eye contact etc etc) were very gradual to say the least. He lost total speech by 20 months of age. Again we never associated it to autism as his father and I were going thru some marital issues at the time and we thought he was responding to that. Rodney (SR) and I separated in July of 99 and by the end of August Jr was totally withdrawn, not responding to his name or even loud noises. Again I thought because his Daddy wasn’t in the house anymore. A friend suggested we get him evaluated for hearing loss (it runs on his father’s side of the family at early ages).
Our counties early intervention became a very close member of our family at that time. His hearing was tested and noted to be very normal. His development was evaluated and that’s when it became apparent that our little JR had some major issues. He was noted as having a major speech delay (duh!!!!), as well as behavior issues (In daycare he was the classroom bully and I thought it was him being a boy and being 2 so damn stupid of me).
It would be another year (August 29th 2000 to be precise) before Autism would be mentioned in connection to my son. That was like a blow to the face to hear that your son has a disorder that is both educationally and behaviorally related and that there is no magic pill he can take to get rid of it. I knew what autism was (and no not just from Rain Man!!) for I had a friend in the early 80’s that had 2 autistic twin sons who were very severely autistic. My first thought upon remembering these boys was “I’m going to lose my son!!” It went screaming thru my mind like a jumbo jet on take off. After the doctor said autism she followed up wit the words “high functioning”. At the time I had no clue what those words meant in relationship to my son. I got a good understanding of them rather quickly though.
Since August 29th 2000 JR has made remarkable strides. He’s enrolled in a specialized pre-school that is geared toward autism and ABA therapy. He receives ABA therapy in the home as well as Speech and Occupational therapy at an outside facility. We started him of vitamin therapies in November 2001 with B6 and Magnesium. The eye contact went up, the patience went up, the restlessness has decreased. Something that we never thought we would see is his social interaction. He actually goes up to people (adults 99% of the time) and engages them!! We still struggle with peer-to-peer interaction and with the exception of his sister the only other child he interacts with is a neighbors little girl. So things in this arena are getting better too.
On January 29th 2002 we met with a Dr. Stephen Nezezon (http://www.wholisticmind.com/index.htm) in Honesdale. We were going to see him initially for chelation therapy of JR. We didn’t want to use the DMSA/ALA approach, as there are no long-term studies for the potential side effects of these chemicals. I don’t want to introduce more chemicals to eliminate the existing Mercury with no studies to back up the safety of the DMSA/ALA. Dr N is a registered DAN doctor and all though that doesn’t assure anything I count my lucky stars that we found him. Upon meeting JR he did some physical evaluations (of the fingernails/skin/eyes and tongue). He then recommended a regime of vitamins/antioxidants for JR. The recommendations consisted of: Selenium/ Glutathione/ Vitamins E & C. He also gave me a blood serum test kit to have an FIA Profile 3000 conducted by SpectraCell Labs (http://www.spectracell.com/home.html). What that test revealed was that JR was deficient in all the vitamins and antioxidants that Dr. N suggested we put him on. JR is also deficient in Vitamin B12 and Choline. So after a phone consultation with Dr N we began Friday the 1st of March 2002 by adding in addition to the Vitamin B6/Mag a buffered powered form of Vitamin C. We do all of our supplement purchasing from Kirkman Labs (http://www.kirkmanlabs.com/index.htm) .
That’s my son’s history and ride on the Autism roller coaster. Now I want to explain why I am so glad that I didn’t nurse him when he was a baby. You see I have a mouthful of fillings and back “in the day” (I just turned 40 on the 24th of September) they used fillings composed of mercury. Those fillings leak mercury into your system as long as you have them. Think about that for just a moment the vaccinations are composed of Thimerosal, which is 50% ethyl mercury, and then heap on the mercury that Mom is passing to the baby thru the gestation of the pregnancy and then nursing process. I am so damn glad I didn’t nurse him for I believe in my heart JR would be so much worse than he is now.
Do I believe he’s been poisoned by the very vaccinations that are supposed to protect him?? Damn right I do!!! When I first started making the connection between Autism and Vaccinations it was 2 years (almost to the day) after he received his last round of shots (and believe me when I tell you it will be forever his last round and his sisters last rounds of vaccinations!!!!) I’ve come to the conclusion that these pharmaceutical companies biggest concern isn’t the welfare of our children but the welfare of their checkbooks. Vaccinations are a scam for them to make as much money as their propaganda can instill fear in us over. Our government isn’t any better. The agencies that are supposed to be policing these companies in fact need policing themselves. There are members of the CDC and FDA that sit on the board of directors of some of these drug companies for Christ sake!!! Can anyone say CONFLICT OF INTEREST??? The medical profession itself is another area where most consumers (patients people like you and me that go to the doctors for our checkups and well baby checks etc etc etc ) are totally unaware of this, but every time a doctor uses a product or writes out a script that the product comes from a pharmaceutical company they receive some kind of compensation for that “sale” .
People you need to start thinking for yourselves and stop thinking that your Doctor is God and is only out for your best interests because that isn’t the case anymore. Our health care field from the Doctors all the way up to the governing bodies that are supposed to be regulating them are only out for one thing…. the protection of their wallets and a way to make a fast buck!!!!
Do I sound a little paranoid? Maybe so but my memory is fine and my son was talking at one time and was a typically developing child. He’s getting it back slowly but the damage has been done and God only knows what the future holds for us especially when he hits puberty.
Below is a press release that I think needs to be added to this so here it is: If you decide to sue so be it. But this press release at least for me is one of education. There is a program out there when you can get some kind of satisfaction (all though with this government rest assured it won’t be much!!!)
PRESS RELEASE
Contacts: Jeff Thompson – 800.220.9341
Jeff Sell – 800.220.9341
For immediate release
August 5, 2001, Houston, Texas
“VACCINE INJURY ALLIANCE”
(HOUSTON, TEXAS-August 8, 2001)
The Williams Bailey Law Firm, L.L.P., (Houston, Texas) has assembled a strategic alliance of the leading law firms in the country to make people aware of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (“NVICP”) and vigorously prosecute vaccine injury claims on a number of different fronts” according to John Eddie Williams, Jr., Managing Partner. “We will be offering our clients a full service individualized approach to vaccine injury claims; from filing and administering claims under the NVICP, to pursuing individual civil actions across the nation if the Program denies a claim or awards an inadequate amount of compensation for the adverse reactions suffered”.
In 1986 Congress established the NVICP to compensate victims, protect vaccine manufacturers and health care personnel administering vaccines from liability resulting from vaccine related injuries and deaths. Even though the enabling legislation that created the NVICP requires the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to “undertake reasonable efforts to inform the public of the availability of the Program”, most parents, teachers, physicians, and even many attorneys, are unaware of the existence of this program, let alone the three year (3 year) statute of limitations that may bar claims that are not timely filed. “The Secretary has obviously done very little, if anything to fulfill this directive, so we will,” according to Jeff Sell, an attorney working with the William Bailey Law Firm.
The limitation provision buried within the NVICP states:
“a vaccine set forth in the Vaccine Injury Table which is administered after October 1, 1988, if a vaccine-related injury occurred as a result of the administration of such vaccine, no petition may be filed for compensation under the Program for such injury after the expiration of 36 months [48 months with respect to death claims] after the date of the occurrence of the first symptom or manifestation of onset or of the significant aggravation of such injury…” 42 USC Sec. 300aa-16.
The strategic “vaccine alliance” includes: Williams Bailey Law Firm, L.L.P. (Houston), Conway, Homer & Chin-Caplan, P.C. (Boston), Shoemaker & Horn (Vienna, VA), Blizzard & McCarthy (Houston) and Hitt, Patterson & Sell (Houston) and others. Some of these firms have for years specialized in representing individuals under the NVICP who have been injured by vaccinations.
At any rate that is our story and my reasons for outrage. Do what you can with the material and lets hope this epidemic gets the attention it deserves. For the future generations are counting on us today to take action..
DEBORAH DELP