Benjamins Vaccine Injury Story

Since October is Vaccine Injury Awareness Month I wanted to share our story. This isn't a big Anti Vaccine Post its just our story and a plea to educate before you vaccinate.  If you choose to vaccinate that is totally up to you! Just don't do it blindly like we did.  It almost cost us our babies life. 

When our first baby, Benjamin, arrived I never thought twice about vaccines.  Its what the Doctors said they needed and after all Doctors know everything right?  I didn't really have a reason to question it.  When we went in for Benjamins 4 month check he got several vaccinations which included Dtap, PVC, HIB, Polio, RV.  Of course it always was sad to have to hold him down and listen to him scream as he was injected with what I was told he needed to be protected.  We went home and of course he had the normal after vaccine crankiness.  After a few nights he simply couldn't sleep.  He acted as if he was in pain.  He was a sleep through the night baby at this point but just was so restless and not normal.

A week after his vaccinations he developed a very high fever.  We took him to his doctor with a fever of 104.  They said it would run its course and just to keep an eye on it.  His breathing was very fast and labored so they did an xray but said it was clear.  They took blood work but it would be days before they had any real results.

By the time he got home his fever was over 105!  I called the hospital and the nurse told me to bring him in.  We were promptly taken back to the ER and began tests. They put an IV in his lil head and put a cup over it so he wouldn't mess with it.  With in a few hours we were being admitted. The first thought was that he had some type of meningitis because the spinal tap showed something but they weren't sure yet.  After the 2nd day they came in and said he had a form of staph but they weren't sure where it was.  He was being given all kinds of antibiotics to fight whatever it might be but his counts were still not good at all!
On about the 4th day I noticed he had stopped moving one of his legs completely.   Within minutes of me telling the nurse, he was being prepped for surgery.  We had no idea what for at that point.
They called for a pediatric orthopedic specialist and he came in and told us that it looked as if the infection was in his leg and they needed to do an immediate surgery.  The doctor was hopeful but realistic.  Benjamin was a very very sick baby and it didn't look good. 

There we were in the hospital, new parents and our 4 month old baby on the brink of death.  At the time our childrens pastor and his wife from church had just happened to come by at the right time.  They prayed for Benjamin and the doctors etc and it helped ease our fears a little.

We waited in the waiting room for what seemed like hours, I have no idea how long it actually was but I was focusing on holding it together. 
They did an incision in his hip but the infection wasn't there.  It was actually down in his thigh.  Right where he had his immunizations a week before!  They had to open up his leg and clean out a lot of the very serious infection.  

 These pictures are actually during the last week there when he was getting better.  I didnt have the heart to take pics when he had the iv in his head.

After the surgery they told us he would likely have to go back in again and get more.  

He wasn't getting better after the 2nd week he had even stopped eating and they were having to feed him through a tube! They went back in on the other side of his leg and cleaned out some more infection.  We ended up being in the hospital for 3 1/2 weeks!  Several times the doctors told us they didn't know if he would make it.  When he started getting better they were actually surprised.  We knew God protected our precious baby!

The orthopedic surgeon said the infection was likely from his immunizations.  After all the spot of the infection was in the exact spot of shots!  And how else does a perfectly healthy, 4 month old baby who is breastfed exclusively and at home with me 24/7 get a serious life threatening staph infection inside his thigh?  He has 3 large scars on his leg and 2 on his neck from where they had to put in a port line to give him medicines for such a long time. 

Before we were even released from the hospital we had already found a new Doctor. I started doing research on Vaccines and was a little surprised by what I found.  I am not going to get into a big anti vaccine post/debate.  If you choose to vaccinate, thats up to you and your family.  I just ask that you do as much research as possible, research both sides and not just what big pharmaceutics companies that make huge profits say and dont vaccinate blindly.  I did and it almost cost us our babies life. 

When doing research there are two big things I noticed.  First the ingredients and second the lack of need for them, meaning, most of them are for things that aren't life threatening.  I could go on for hours but I just dont have the time! I'm not going to go into everything but I will share a few of my fav pics from one of my fav FBs and some links.

One book I really loved was the Vaccine Book by Dr Sears.  It isnt anti vaccine at all it just states the facts.  It tells you the ingredients and the risks etc.


http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vaccination-Information-Network-VINE/69667273997

http://www.facebook.com/national.vaccine.information.center

All these pics below are taken from http://www.facebook.com/thetruthaboutvaccines

This Post Sponsored by: