A MOTHER-of-two has spoken of her anguish after her son was wrongly given an MMR jab.

Debby Hunter says the last six weeks have been a nightmare for her and her family after a routine visit to a doctor's surgery for her 13-month-old son led to him mistakenly being injected with the triple MMR vaccine.

She said her family would have to endure an anxious wait to see whether little Jacob would become autistic as a result of the mix-up.

Mrs Hunter, from Binbrook Close, Doddington Park, Lincoln, said: "The last few weeks have been a real nightmare and I am worried sick about whether Jacob will develop autism.

"My husband and I had specifically not made a decision about whether to have Jacob vaccinated with the triple jab or to have them singularly because we felt we didn't know enough about the facts.

"Now we've had that choice removed from us and I am very angry.

"I was in shock when it first happened and although Birchwood Health Centre was apologetic and has carried out an investigation I am still not satisfied."

There are fears that the triple MMR vaccine may cause autism in some youngsters.

As a result, many parents are choosing to wait before having their children immunised or instead taking them for single vaccinations at a time.

A poll conducted by the Lincolnshire Echo earlier this year found 82 per cent of those who took part favoured single vaccines over the combined MMR jab.

Mrs Hunter said: "Jacob went in to have three stitches removed from his chin. For him to have been given the MMR jab instead and without checking there and then is unacceptable.

"I am really not happy and would urge other parents to make sure when they visit their GPs that this doesn't happen to them too.

"The nurse, Carol Hennell, didn't ask me why I had come to visit her and just gave Jacob an injection. Neither of us were expecting it and I was very upset."

"If he was having an injection I should have been cuddling him into me but because he was having stitches removed from his chin he was sitting with his back to me and I was holding his head still."

She said the experience had been very traumatic.

She said: "At first I thought my son had been given a tetanus injection but when the nurse started to dismiss me I realised an error had occurred.

"The nurse claimed she didn't know that I was there to have Jacob's stitches removed and informed me that she had given him an MMR injection instead - without checking my consent.

"Although she was apologetic I feel a grave error has occurred and am deeply distressed about this. I feel traumatised and the day after it happened I was in a real state of shock and couldn't stop crying."

She said she had phoned the practice and asked for a health visitor to see her but had been told the practice's staff were too busy.

Mrs Hunter said: "The nurse should have been aware that Jacob was there for removal of stitches and nothing associated with MMR jabs.

"This is an extremely worrying thing to happen and I am terrified it could happen again. I have lost all confidence in the medical practice and now want assurances that no other family will be forced to go through the mental anguish that we are going through."