Rosemary Fox MBE for the Association of Parents of Vaccine Damaged Children
The Campaign for Compensation
I had never heard of vaccine damage until my second daughter, Helen, was 18 months old. At which time doctors said that the illness she had suffered after her polio vaccination at 8 months was probably due to the vaccine.
She is now 45.
Having started life as a chubby, bouncy baby full of life, at 8 months old she started to be unwell, suffering what I later found out to be seizures or epileptic fits and like every mother I had spent months trying to find out what was wrong with her. The doctor who saw her at the time considered it was a stomach upset because of her unusual vomiting but when the vomiting stopped the seizures began and although the doctors were helpful and concerned no one could tell me what was wrong with her. She had had a polio vaccination 2 days before the vomiting started.
It was only when I met the mother of a child with a similar history and we swapped notes about what had happened before the illness that I came across vaccination. Both had been vaccinated against polio in the week in which they became ill. The other child had been hospitalised. The rest is a very long story which I have told in detail in the book "Helen's Story" which was pubished last year. I refer to the details here only to tell you what I discovered when trying to get the Government to accept that the Immunisation Programmes they set up can cause damage to some children and that they needed to accept responsibility for those who were damaged. It is too easy for them to say - as they do - that you can't prove that it was vaccination which caused your child's illness and then leave it to you to try to make your case.
Health Officials and most doctors don't want to hear about vaccine damage so as a parent you are in a difficult position when trying to raise the issue. However convinced you are that it was a vaccination given to your child which started the illness, you need to be able to back your statements with some solid dates and details - being convinced is not enough.
After our campaign started in 1978 the Government agreed to look at our cases and pay an initial sum of £10,000. They set up a Payment Unit to examine claims " on the balance of probability". This is the most important part of the whole operation and I will try to set out what we found to be necessary for the assessment of such cases.
An ideal example of such a claim would be one where:
- there was a normal birth without complications of any kind and the discharge from the maternity hospital or unit reported that to the family doctor
- there was normal progress from birth to the date of a vaccination without a serious illness or any kind
- there was a vaccination following which there was a noticeable reaction and illness
- this illness was reported to the doctor within a short period and that there is a doctor's record.
If you attended the Child Health Clinic there would be notes of the child's progress which would help. Although it might be difficult to get all the necessary medical notes to support your statements about child health before the vaccination reaction you should nevertheless try hard to do so and insist that doctors check their records. Because of a query relating to Helen's past history which arose last year I was able to get her notes going back to 1964 - so they should be there if you try.
The balance of probabilities depends on a decision about which event or illness in the child's life caused the damage. So, an ideal claim for damage on the balance of probabilities should be accompanied by a letter giving:
- The precise date of vaccination
- The precise date of an illness afterwards
- A note of when the family doctor was told of the illness
- A reference to any Hospitals/Specialists to which the child was referred
- A note of the Specialists report to the GP
When such a claim gets to the Payment Unit they will ask the doctor and specialists for their report and take it from there. A claim without such detail is unlikely to get a clear response.
I know that the Government refuses to accept that MMR caused damage but of course MMR is a combination of 3 vaccines each of which has been found to cause different damage. The cases on which the Vaccine Damage Payment Act was based cover all vaccines in use, including measles, mumps and rubella given separately.
This has been added to the JABS website in the hope that it may help with your application to the Vaccine Damage Payment Unit
Rosemary Fox
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