when i go to the graveyard of my ancestors
at the graveyard there are the siblings of my mother
that died before they were 5 years old
three of them
from the stories i heard it was infectious like pneumonia
knowing probably what i know now
most kids today are immunized against these diseases
it was diphtheria pneumococcus h.flu or flu
most i say
then my sisters best friend in high school was this
beautiful young energetic teenager
however her one leg was smaller
she walked on crutches all her life and still does
she had polio
i can remember standing in line waiting to get my sugar
cube to get immunized against this terrible disease
there were not many people not doing the vaccine
since we all had seen what a terrible disease this
polio was
this was all one generation ago
i also remember when i was about 8 years old
being in this dark dark room
having a headache
running a high fever
being all red
but
lucky for me i recovered ok
i had the measles
then when i started medical school in one of our classes
we had to go tour a facility where all they had were kids
who were damaged neurologically with strokes head trauma
genetic disease or infectious diseases
there on a gurney sitting up this beautiful young girl
around 13 years old
i thought maybe some student had climbed up there to
sleep
but
no it was a young girl who had developed measles
and got the encephalitis that can come with this disease
and
was left with the life long brain damage
had she been born 10 years later she wouldnt have had
this happen to her
i still can see her now
i occasionally think of her
when vaccine controversy
why theres a controversy i dont know
when this controversy shows up again
i think of her
i have never seen a case of measles in my 30 year
medical career
in 2000 there were no cases of measles in the us
then when i was an intern doing my ward rotations at
the childrens hospital in little rock
i got a call you have a new patient in the emergency room
thats going to icu
there lay a 15 month old baby with two crying despondent
parents
the baby having just had a massive seizure
i did his spinal tap
it was cloudy real cloudy
the test showed he had
h.flu meningitis
(the hib shot most babies get now prevents this
along with pneumonia ear infection bone infections
and a life threatening throat infection called epiglottitis)
had he been born just two years later he would have got
the shot and not had this disease
then he lost the use of his left side
a scan showed he had developed a large brain abscess
and had had a massive stroke
weve all seen someone with a stroke
they are usually old folks
but not kids
when i rotated off the service several weeks later he was
still in icu
later to be moved to a nursing home for kids
he if he lived would not be able to speak or communicate
when i was in college i worked for an ambulance service
that picked up bodies for a local mortuary
when we delivered a body one day
in the viewing room was this little 5 year old boy
all dressed up like he was going to church or a wedding
with a book i guess his favorite book clasped in his hands
looking like he had just laid down for a nap
i looked at the name
i remember him and his story
he had came to the emergency room with high fever
trouble breathing with a hoarse sound
real loud when he breathe in
he got a penicillin shot and was sent home
returning later that night in an ambulance
dead
now i know that what he had was epiglottitis from hib
now preventable with the hib vaccine
when a child has this
they have to immediately have a emergency tracheotomy placed
like right now
or their airway will completely close off
even just looking in their throat can cause them to close
their airway
if you miss this as a doctor the patient will die
wikepedia.org
then
later there was another child
with pneumococcal meningitis
who was septic
that means the infection spread throughout his body
he eventually lost both hands both lower legs
his penis
his brain
there was several times in the last few years of my
practice when i would have an unimmunized child
come in with high fever and stiff neck
please ole please dont let them have this again
i thought we got rid of these diseases
so if you ask me do i believe in immunizations
should all kids get them
from my life experience from when i was a child to now
you better believe
i am a
right to lifer on this one
its a type of child neglect or abuse
not immunizing your kids
vaccinate your kids
dont let them be one of those above
or
dont let them infect your child or your relative on chemo
the organicgreen doctor
