Call from a midwife

This morning, I heard from a long-time AVN member who works as a midwife at a private hospital. She said that when she worked at the public hospital nearby, almost all of the babies had the Hep B vaccine within days of birth but at the private hospital, it is the other way around - the majority of babies don't get Hep B. This is because those in private hospitals have access to more information and are better able to make informed choices than those who cannot afford private insurance and give birth within the public system.

This midwife had been caring for a baby that was born at the private hospital recently. Bubs was 3 days old, feeding well, alert and healthy. She came in on the fourth day after birth and discovered  that this child had been transferred to a larger hospital with a neonatal intensive care unit because the baby had started having seizures.

She asked the staff on duty what had happened between the time she had ended her shift the night before and that day when she came in. They didn't know. She asked if the baby had recently received a Hep B vaccine and upon checking the files, they discovered that the vaccine had been administered shortly before the seizures had started. Nobody else on staff had even thought to look that up!

She then went to the paediatrician who had been caring for this baby and started to ask if he thought that the Hep B vaccine might have had something to do with the child's seizures. The paediatrician stopped her in her tracks by putting his hands up and saying - "Don't even go there!"

Of course, this was not reported (though reporting is required in the State where this occurred if seizures occur within 30 days of a vaccination - let alone hours of the shot) and who knows what effect this vaccine will have on this previously healthy child? Saddest of all, because this mother was not told that the vaccine may have been the cause of these seizures, she will no doubt continue vaccinating and with the next shots, this child's reaction may accelerate and become even more severe.

One has to hope that the outcome won't be the same as Lyla Rose Belkin's - another perfectly health child who, unfortunately, died a short time after receiving her Hep B shot.

But regardless of what happens, it was that paediatrician's responsibility - both legal and moral  - to report this reaction and it is the government's responsibility to its citizens to ensure that doctors who don't report reactions are penalised. You and I cannot break the law without penalty - why should doctors get away with it simply because they either have a preconceived notion that vaccines can't cause adverse reactions or else, through self-interest, they do not want to accept responsibility for what they have done?