You can always say “This is impossible” until it happens to
you.
The parents of a 9-year-old girl with autism spoke Thursday
for the first time saying their assertion that the illness was caused by
childhood vaccines has been vindicated by the federal government’s decision to
compensate them.
“We are very pleased with the government’s decision. It has
been eight difficult and heartbreaking years since our daughter’s injury,”
Hannah Poling’s father, Dr. Jon Poling, a neurologist in private practice in
Athens, Georgia, told reporters Thursday, according to CNN.
The Polings will be paid from a federal fund that
compensates people injured by vaccines. The amount of money has not been
established yet.
The Polings said their daughter received nine routinely
administered childhood vaccines in July 2000. Following the shots, the girl’s
health rapidly declined. She stopped eating, failed to respond to verbal
stimuli, and became prone to episodes of screaming and high fever, Terry
Poling, Hannah’s mother, herself a nurse and trial lawyer, said.
“Not only did she lose brain function, she lost her growth,
she lost her ability to walk. She lost everything," Jon Poling said.
The Polings told reporters that the money will help pay for
Hannah’s care for the rest of her life. Jon Poling gave up his job at John Hopkins
University to open a private practice
in Athens to
spend more time with his family. Terry Poling stopped her work as trial
attorney to take care of Hannah full time.
On the other hand, U.S. health officials have
consistently maintained that vaccines are safe. Dr. Julie Gerberding, the head
of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there was no change in
that position.
“Nothing in any of this is going to change any of our
recommendations. Our message to parents is that immunization is lifesaving. This
is proven to save lives and is an essential component of protection for
children across America
and around the world,” she said.
Many experts say Hannah’s case is unique and that her rare
condition led to a rare consequence. Hannah was diagnosed with mitochondrial
disorder (which can be present at birth from an inherited gene or acquired
later in life and impairs cell’s ability to use nutrients. If often causes
problems in brain functioning and can lead to delays in walking and talking)
and it seems that the shots she was given significantly aggravated her illness
resulting in a brain disorder with features of autism.
Nearly 5,000 families are seeking compensation for autism or
other developmental disabilities they blame on vaccines and the publicity
around the Polings’ case will sure make them fight more for their cause.
Rates of children suffering from autism in California have risen despite the removal of
the preservative thimerosal from childhood vaccines in 2001, researchers said
in a study published in January in the Archives of General Psychiatry, a
publication of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers
analyzed autism rates in young children over a 12-year period and discovered
the first hard evidence that thimerosal plays no role in autism.
It seems that removing thimerosal from all recommended
infant vaccines as a precautionary measure in March 2001 had no effect on
reducing the number of children suffering from autism. The only childhood
vaccines that contain more than trace amounts of thimerosal are multiple-dose
vials of some flu vaccines.
Photo Credit: CNN.com
