Letter from parent of vaccine-injured child (Christian Alexander's story):
Mister (Madame) Chairman, members of the Committee (Subcommittee):
I am James Raymond Donnelly. My son,
Christian Alexander Donnelly, is
autistic. He will never be
self-sufficient, never be productive. He
will always be a burden. Yet he was not
born this way. Quite the
contrary. For the first eighteen months
of his life, he was a healthy,
happy little boy and the joy of our life.
He was born on November 13,
1992, weighing eight-pounds,
four-ounces. He crawled, he walked, he
climbed. He had lots of little friends
and enjoyed being with them. We
played and he mimicked us. We made
faces, he made faces. We played
games, and he sang songs as quickly as we
could teach them to him. I
remember once when our little family went
to Chicago. He wasn't even a
year and a half old. We were at a stop
sign, and counting down turns to
a friend's house. His mom said, "That's
one." And Alexander piped up:
"two.three.four. five.six." And so on.
We thought we had the perfect
child. Don't all parents think so?
All that changed. It changed on May
9, 1994. What September 11, 2001,
was to all Americans is what May 9, 1994,
was to us.
On that day Alexander's mom took him
to the health department for a
series of vaccines recommended by his
pediatrician. Alexander received
seven vaccines that day, including HbPV,
polio, DTP, and MMR. We had
absolutely no reason to think Alexander
would receive anything but safe,
effective drugs. How sadly mistaken we
were.
Alexander cried the next few nights
and was grouchy for several days.
Then he became ill. We took the first
appointment with his pediatrician
we could get, on May 18, 1994. By that
time, Alexander was suffering
from chest congestion, coughing, green
nasal drainage, and fever. The
doctor treated him with a regimen of
antibiotics. Within a week the
drugs seemed to relieve the symptoms.
But from then on, Alexander was a very
different child. He did not
interact with us or his friends as much
as he had previously. He did not
demonstrate any further improvement in
social or learning skills. We
thought perhaps he was reacting to having
a new brother who was born
around that time. In October, 1996, Dr.
Peter Tanguay, an expert on
autism, gave us the real answer. Our
child, Alexander, was autistic.
As time went on, Alexander didn't
improve at all. He began holding his
hands on his ears and squealing at a high
and uncomfortably loud pitch.
He refused to stay inside the house and
would leave frequently. We were
forced to put dead-bolt locks on every
door in the house and even nail
the windows shut. He would frequently
remove his clothing no matter
where he was and run around naked. In
fact, he still removes his shirts
and will even put his coat on over his
bare upper torso in the
wintertime. We finally potty trained
Alexander when he was nearly six
years old. Since the day he received his
vaccines, he has not been able
to answer a question with anything other
than a 'yes' or 'no'. In the
last few months he has been on a diet
exclusive of wheat and dairy
products. We believe that is why he has
recently been able to use small
assortment of complete sentences.
He hasn't made a friend since he
received the shots. He remains
isolated. He tries to interact with other
children, but he is unable to
do so with anything other than
repetitious questions. He is invariably
unsuccessful. He is constantly
frustrated. He has trouble asking for
the things he wants and needs. He has
difficulty controlling his
behavior and becomes violently angry when
we can't understand what he is
saying. He spends a great deal of his
time dropping small items behind
furniture and using straight objects to
follow grains in wood furniture.
He likes to watch the same movies over
and over. He loves the violin,
but can't comprehend instruction well
enough to hold one properly, much
less learn to play. He loves to play on
swings, as the motion appears to
stimulate him somehow. We believe these
are all the result of a
perceptual incapacity that he's trying to
compensate for. He still has
the same level of development in the
third grade that he did in the
first. It's clear the school is moving
him along because of his age. His
teachers do not have adequate training or
resources to provide him the
education he so desperately needs--and to
which he is entitled by law.
Then we arrive at the emotional ruin
and financial loss that autism
creates for us and for many others.
Parents are facing bankruptcy as the
result of paying huge amounts for the
medical and educational needs of
these children. Insurance companies
choose not to cover these expenses.
Public schools are not adequately funded
to provide for their
educational needs.
Chances are Alexander will outlive his
mother and me. He'll need to be
cared for as an adult. Millions of other
autistic children will need to
be cared for, too. There is a 10-17%
annual rise in the frequency of
autism.
But the impact on an autistic child's
family goes well beyond the
financial burden. Siblings are denied
many opportunities because
families are unable to go anyplace in
public because it's so difficult
to control the autistic child's behavior.
In my case, my younger son
Brendan can't participate in sports
unless we can find a baby-sitter for
Alexander so we can take him to his ball
games. In our case, too, the
financial strain led Alexander's mother
and me to divorce. Both of our
children suffer emotionally as a result.
I blame the vaccines Alexander
received for all of this. Vaccines, in
and of themselves, are blessings, for all
of us. I believe the problem
lies in the manufacture and
administration of these drugs. I understand
they are preserved with an untested form
of mercury. I would think that
mercury of any kind is unacceptable in
vaccines. This year, seven years
after his shots, Alexander underwent a
metals toxicity test, which
revealed that mercury levels in his body
exceeded 20 times the EPA's
established safety margin. This is a
reflection of Alexander's apparent
over-exposure to thimerosal.
Combining drugs to deliver them with
one injection, the MMR vaccine for
example, is risky. I believe that
administering the Hepatitis-B vaccine
at birth creates a greater risk than the
benefit it provides as the
baby's body already has a multitude of
adjustments to make when it is
born.
It is also clear that some children
may have a genetic predisposition
not to be tolerant of the bodily insult
the vaccine creates. Knowing
this, we should take measures to isolate
these factors and avoid the
reckless administration that has become
so prevalent. Parents should
also have a choice on whether to
administer these vaccines and they
should be made aware of the possible risk
to which they are subjecting
their children. By not addressing the
risk, we're essentially playing
"Russian Roulette" with our children's
lives. We're not only risking
autism, but ADD, ADHD, behavioral
problems and other neurological
disorders.
A cynic would view with suspicion the
uncomfortably close relationship
between the CDC and FDA and the drug
companies who are directly affected
by the federal agencies' policies. When
the federal agencies accept drug
manufacturers' money, how can they act
impartially and in the best
interests of children? It can promote an
environment of partiality for
the parties providing these dollars. In
other arenas, this might be
considered to be an abuse of trust or
possibly even bribery.
But let me return to my son,
Alexander. Autism is often considered as a
genetic disorder that is present from
birth. But if Alexander were
simply "wired wrong", he would not have
developed normally for the first
eighteen months of his life. Something
triggered his condition. I
believe it was the untested mercury in
the vaccines he received. Now
the best years of his life are long gone.
And Alexander is not alone.
The impact on families goes beyond the
comprehension of those who don't
have to live with autism. The
implications are enormous. Our children
are becoming tax-services users instead
of taxpayers. Our families are
going broke, which is affecting our
economy. The drug companies are
making billions of dollars loading our
children up with an increasing
number of pharmaceuticals and creating a
whole new source of wealth from
the treatments for the disorders created
by the questionable vaccines.
New treatment options and intensive
research are mandatory in finding
answers to this dilemma. Insurance
companies need to be required to
cover these disorders. A reduction in the
sheer numbers of the vaccines
administered needs to be implemented
until more thorough research is
completed. Education of medical
professionals concerning the potential
dangers involved in the present use of
vaccines should be a requirement
of government and licensure agencies.
Parents should be made aware of
these possibilities and given a choice on
how or whether to administer
these vaccines to their children.
Implementation of these measures would
certainly reduce the rate of new
instances of autism, which would indeed
be a step in the right direction.
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