Mason was born on January 25th 2016. He was beautiful and strong right out of the gate, 6 lbs 6 oz of perfection. After a couple days we brought Mason home and cherished him. He was our miracle baby that we never thought would come. There’s almost 10 years between my two boys. We tried unsuccessfully for years to have additional children and had just come to accept the idea that we would be parents to one amazing child. The to our joyous surprise we were given the extraordinary gift of another amazing, sweet baby boy. We were so happy and our oldest son LOVED being a big brother. They were inseparable.
While pregnant I made sure I ate healthy, avoiding chemicals and other toxins. I researched the vitamins and minerals that would best help him grow and also avoided chemicals that I used in our daily life; lotions, soaps, diaper creams, etc. After he was born he was breast fed for 2 months but our supply dried up and we were forced to use formula. Dissatisfied with the formula options in the U.S. I researched what was the safest and healthiest formula available. We ended up importing organic formula from Germany! Like his older brother he wanted to be held all of the time, he loved to be snuggled and talked to. Mason was bright and happy, reaching his milestones early. Before he reached 2 months old he could hold his head up while being held and while on his tummy.
We took Mason to every well baby check up. At his 1 week check up he’s described as “well-nourished, well developed, alert, in no acute distress, easily consolable” and his neck is described as “normal with cervical range of motion within normal limits.” Neurologically his records describe him as “alert, active, normal muscle tone.” Likewise, his reflexes are all normal too. During that visit the records note that we received “counseling for all vaccination components… Appropriate CDC information statement forms were dispensed to caregiver.” It was at his one week appointment on February 2nd that he received a Hepatitis B vaccination, his first vaccination. Three days later we returned to the doctor’s officer with cold-like symptoms. The doctor did not disclose that those symptoms could be related to the Recombivax (Hep B) and were in fact listed as potential side effects on the vaccine insert. Again at his 1 month well-child visit Mason was described as well-nourished, well developed and alert. And like before his neck, reflexes and neurologic exams were normal and unremarkable.
On March 7th after difficulty with gas and fussiness Mason was taken to Children’s Mercy Urgent Care. During that visit the Dr said it was likely colic but performed an exam anyway. Those records also state that Mason was alert and described as a “very well-appearing baby” with no abnormalities to his neck.
Mason holding his head up. Early March 2016.
Mason was taken to his 2 month well baby check-up on March 23, 2016. The records from that visit state that he has achieved several milestones like responding to sound, attempting to roll over, lifting his chest (and head) in prone position. He recognizes parents, vocalizes and smiles. Again his head and neck are described as atraumatic and normocephalic. It is also noted that “his mother would like to discuss postponing vaccines” and although being repeatedly told about our family’s history of autoimmune disease the Dr reports that the are no significant familial risk factors and pushed vaccinations. At that visit Mason received Prevnar 13, Rotavirus, another Hepatitis B and Pentacel despite my concerns.
Over the next two to three weeks (determined by photographs and family recounts) Mason began having difficulty holding his head up. It was not a sudden onset but a gradual progression of weakness. Originally I had thought that it was due to the fact that I held him so much and his head was used to laying on my shoulder so I didn’t think
it was a concern. Others began noticing and offering their ideas of a possible cause. Besides not standing my ground for postponing vaccinations this was my first mistake. Now after research and autopsy results we believe that Mason had experienced an adverse reaction and was suffering from Hypotonia also known as “Floppy Head syndrome” or “Floppy Baby Syndrome.”
And 13 days later on April 6th he was back at the Dr’s office (under a different physician’s care) due to coughing, wheezing and chest congestion. We were told to give him saline nose drops and use a humidifier and sent home. On April 11th we returned to the doctor’s office as Mason was not having any improvement. We were given amoxicillin and sent home again.
On May 18th, while playing with his older brother, Mason bumped his head and we took him to urgent care as a precaution. It was after 5 pm so our regular doctor’s office was closed. Since he was just one week shy of being 4 months old and not able to communicate we felt it best to have full scans done just in case. Mason checked out perfect and was released shortly after being examined. *It is important to note that Mason’s neck, spine and brain were all imaged. The radiologist and ER doctors found no skeletal or muscle abnormalities further proving that Mason’s floppy neck was a neurological side effect and not a physical ailment.
One day after Mason turned 4 months old, 8 days after his visit to urgent care, he was seen by his regular doctor for his well baby check-up. It was May 26th. During this visit I remember being very concerned about Mason’s neck. The doctor assured me that it was a common condition known as torticollis. He suggested physical therapy and gave us a referral. The doctor’s notes in Mason’s medical records, however, describe his neurologic condition differently. Here the doctor refers to Mason’s floppy neck as a “rightward deviation of chin with left head tilt” which suggests that the doctor may have recognized that it wasn’t torticollis and was really upper motor neuron dysfunction. Likewise, the Babinski reflex was not noted as intact, suggesting a deviation and more evidence of a neurological issue. That alone should have been enough cause to delay Mason’s vaccinations but after being told it was just torticollis and receiving pressure to vaccinate I didn’t follow my intuition and agreed to let them inject my baby with 5 vaccines carrying a host of viruses, bacteria, chemicals and adjuvants among other ingredients. Again, at that visit I expressed my deep concern about Mason receiving his 4 month vaccinations, especially considering our history and now his current physical state. At the time I was unaware of the “CASE method for approaching vaccine hesitant parents.” With cunning skill our doctor performed this approach word for word in order to break down my defenses. I found out about this approach months after Mason died and my heart dropped to the floor. I had never heard of this and had no idea that this man I trusted with my baby’s life would do this to our family. He manipulated me. He rolled the dice with my baby’s life and we lost. I knew in my heart something didn’t feel right. Everything was telling me that we should forego Mason’s vaccinations and I failed to protect him. I should have stood firm in what I knew was the right decision but I allowed a doctor well versed in dealing with concerned parents to assure me that my baby was safe when in fact he had no scientific basis for making those claims. He didn’t research the effect of vaccines on infants with autoimmune history. Hell, he couldn’t even recognize an adverse reaction when it was right in front of him because doctors are not taught to catch the harmful side effects, they are taught to vaccinate no matter what.
Mayo Clinic Professor of Pediatrics, Robert M. Jacobson, MD, FAAP, created the handbook, so to speak, on how to “approach the vaccine hesitant parent” using the method he concocted called CASE. Our doctor did this so effortlessly that it still completely blows my mind. It was months after that visit but I can tell you right where I was when I first learned about this. Immediately the entire conversation came flooding back with such vivid clarity. He told me that he understood my concerns and that they were valid, that I was being a good mother for asking these important questions. He told me about his own children and hundreds of thousands of other children that were perfectly healthy and had no issues whatsoever. He told me that Mason was safer to be vaccinated than not. He handed me a clipboard and said that good parents vaccinate so their children don’t suffer from these horrible diseases and I signed the consent line. This man that I had known for nearly 10 years completely betrayed my trust and instead of “doing no harm” he killed my baby. I don’t believe that he really thought that giving Mason his shots would kill him but by disregarding and dismissing my concerns, by being too closed-minded, by refusing to take initiative and look into multiple valid medical issues that I disclosed he gave the order to inject poison into my baby. Five days later on June 1st 2016 he died. CASE – Corroborate, About Me, Science, Explain/Advise. Our conversation that day followed this by the book.
You can read more about the CASE Method here.
As far as evidence of Mason’s injuries goes, The National Center for Biotechnology Information reports that the pertussis vaccine can cause permanent brain damage and even death in young children. The relationship of the pertussis vaccination to encephalopathies and neurological diseases have been surfacing in medical journals for years. Brain damage is by far the most common adverse reaction associated with vaccinations, although their actual numbers are often reported incorrectly because of the difficulty in the reporting system or not at all. I always feel like I have to reiterate that I know death from vaccine reaction is rare. However in our case the statistics show that he had a much less likely chance of dying from Pertussis (.0000629%) verses the DTaP vaccination (12.7%.) It is the most uncommon side effect. However, it is still a potential side effect. I was uneducated about the side effects/adverse reactions and I do carry quite a bit of guilt for that. Mason showed symptoms of hypotonia after his 2 month vaccinations and was misdiagnosed as torticollis. We know from the autopsy that it was not torticollis causing the limpness because the underlying anatomical distortion that causes torticollis is a shortened sternocleidomastoid muscle. Muscle weakness caused from hypotonia would not be physically evident during the autopsy because it is a cognitive function. B. pertussis is not a particularly invasive bacterium and typically does not penetrate sub-mucosal cells or the bloodstream in adults but in children the blood-brain barrier is not fully developed. Because of the lack of development, toxins secreted by the bacteria may produce systemic effects. Symptomatic disease is characterized by three phases but the one most relevant to this is the paroxysmal phase. During this phase infants may experience symptoms of the bacterial infection the vaccination was suppose to protect against such as a cough. The symptom of coughing may be minimal or even absent and apnea may be the only symptom presented. Which leads to “probable” asphyxia. The medical examiner’s report as well as a full investigation all showed that there was no evidence of choking, suffocation or any other outside factors that would have caused him to stop breathing. This is where there is a lot of gray area and the most controversy and questions. Mason just simply stopped breathing. His airways were not blocked and even the medical examiner can not provide a definitive diagnosis which is why the terminology of “probable” is used. Apnea and asphyxia are synonyms of each other. So whether the death certificate reads probable apnea or probable asphyxia – it’s essentially the same conclusion but still one with a lot of unknowns. I could go on and on about the medical examiner’s report and how the symptoms most commonly found in other unexplained, sudden deaths are not found in our case.
Another plausible explanation has more to do with the other ingredients in the pertussis vaccination than the actual pertussis bacteria itself. That theory suggests that because the pertussis vaccine is very neurotoxic and been known to increase the demyelination, a process related to many neurologic diseases, it could be responsible. Myelin is designed to protect the outer coating of neurons, much like the plastic outer coating over an electrical wire. When this myelin is damaged, neurological disorders usually result. Children are vaccinated at birth for HiB and begin the suggested vaccination schedule at 2 months of age, again before the blood brain barrier is fully developed. It is believed that these toxins eat away (demyelination) at key areas of the brain that control functions such as breathing. Peripheral neuropathy is a condition that develops as a result of damage to the peripheral nervous system (demyelination) — the vast communications network that transmits information between the central nervous system and every other part of the body. Symptoms can range from numbness or tingling, to pricking sensations, or muscle weakness. Severe symptoms may include burning pain, muscle wasting, paralysis, or organ or gland dysfunction. In extreme cases, breathing may become difficult, or organ failure may occur. Like the startle reflex, there are sensors that tell the body when to breathe and to move or wake up if the body is not getting enough oxygen. Babies can rebreathe their own CO2 and the resulting low oxygen levels simply lead to unconsciousness and then death. It is typical that babies that suffer this type of death do so within the time period following the vaccinations. We have the evidence from lab work, radiology and the medical examiner’s own pathological results of the central nervous system that coincide with his physical systems and what caused the neurological damage.
I’ve obtained all of Mason’s medical records including DNA testing, CT and MRI scans from before and after his injections, autopsy results and much more. I’ve reviewed all of the information, I’ve had medical doctors review the information and give me their professional opinions, I’ve researched predisposing host and epidemiological risk factors for SIDS, Intrathoracic petechial hemorrhages and how bacterial toxins could be a potential cause, necropsy of brain tissue and spinal fluid and how they should be required for all infant autopsies, meta-analysis and summaries of controlled studies evaluating estimated relative risk of SIDS associated with DPT Immunization and vaccine induced autoimmune disorders. I’ve read about the MTHFR gene, I’ve studied immunology, read and researched the ingredients, adjuvants and actual viruses contained in the vaccines Mason received. I’m a college graduate. I have other children. I am employed. I am not on any type of government assistance (not that that should matter.) I have seen counselors and psychiatrist to assure that these ideations are not all in my head. They assure me it’s not. I say all of these things because it’s easy for someone who hasn’t been in my position to say I don’t know what I’m talking about or that I’m not a doctor or that I hate babies and want them all to die (I have seriously heard that!) I don’t know it all and I don’t claim to but I know what happened to my baby and I know it’s happening to thousands more. No degree is necessary to understand that.
We’ve filed the necessary documents for a report with VAERS and have begun the process of filing a complaint with the National Vaccine Injury Program. The fact that these two things exist in addition to the National Childhood Vaccination Act of 1986 should be enough for people to stop and question the validity of their scientific claims. Why is it acceptable for pharmaceutical companies to be exempt from any litigation for the damages caused by their product? I mean you can sue McDonalds because of a burn from hot coffee but experience a life altering reaction or even death from a vaccine and there’s no recourse for those responsible? There’s no checks and balances. There’s little honor in the industry, from the pharmaceutical companies or from our government. That’s clear from when the former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Julie Gerberding, was named president of Merck’s vaccine division shortly after fast-tracking Merck’s vaccine, Gardasil. Absolutely no conflict of interest there.
I want you to understand that my goal isn’t to scare people or turn anyone away from vaccinations. Conversation is my goal. It’s a very heart wrenching and morally difficult position to be in. I can stay silent and not tell people what happened to Mason or I can share what happened to him and help spread awareness and education that could possibly save a life. Which is the right choice? I am a believer in pro-vaccine choice. I personally feel that it has horrible side effects but I also believe that I don’t have a right to tell anyone what to do with their own body. I mean, why is is “ok” to have an abortion as protected right but not have that same freedom when choosing whether to vaccinate or not? I understand that it is believed that it eradicated disease but so did sanitation, pasteurization and other discoveries like vector control in the 19th and 20th centuries. There is no concrete evidence that vaccines wiped out many of the diseases like polio and small pox, only anecdotal evidence. It’s acceptable when that anecdotal evidence supports the “pro-vaccine” side but not the “anti-vaccine” side? Vaccines have the potential to save lives, sure, but sometimes, some people are affected negatively. I want people to not be so quick to judge. Why is it not ok to ask questions? Why is it “anti-vaccine” to want more research? Why is it ok to bully people into keeping their mouths shut?
There’s an article “5 reasons to not vaccinate your children” that is deviously written. You are tricked into thinking that there will be 5 legitimate reasons but instead you’ll find an article that uses snarky humor to ridicule, belittle and attack parents just because they are asking questions and trying to make the best choice for their family. She trivializes the injuries and deaths caused by vaccines saying that, “a very eensy teensy tiny portion of the population might be allergic to some of the ingredients and they might have a bad reaction.” Well that “eensy teensy portion” is someone’s child. IT WAS MY CHILD. But hey, by all means, find humor in the misfortune of thousands of children and parents.
It’s not black and white, or at least it shouldn’t be. I wish someone had just said, “Hey, just educate yourself.” or “Make your own decision.” or “See if the benefits outweigh the risks.” Or, if nothing else, at least be aware of all the side effects. I think parents deserve to know that there are more risks than just a fever and swelling around the injection site. Do you know what other symptoms you should watch out for? Do you know there are entire tables of vaccine injuries? That there’s a compensation program? Or that it is a law that any abnormal symptom, whether you believe is associated or not, within 14 days of having a vaccination is required by law to be reported to VAERS? Most people and doctors don’t know that. Which is mind-blowing to me! Of course, it makes total sense that symptoms should be reported in the event that there is an epidemic it can be caught and addressed. But did you know there was an actual place to go to to report reactions? Not likely, at least I didn’t. I also didn’t know there were so many things that could be a vaccine reaction. It seems so simple and I thought I had read up on the topic but not like I should have. There are alternative ways to still achieving the same goal if you have concerns and still want to vaccinate. You can space shots out, in some cases you can ask for individual vaccines of instead of combination vaccines, you can even ask for preservative free vaccines that contain less toxic ingredients, you can aid in detoxification if that’s what you feel is right for your family. You can always vaccinate later but you can never take it back. I chose to have my baby vaccinated because it was the “right thing” to do by society’s standards and largely, because of the manipulation tactics used by our physician. What I wish I had done was just be more diligent in my research so that I might have recognized what side effects to look for if they were to transpire. If I had known that ataxia or hypotonia were a side effect we could have discussed options but I didn’t know. We went into the 4 month check up and I discussed my concern over his weakened muscles and the doctor blew off my concerns, misdiagnosed it as torticollis and referred us to physical therapy. Mason died before he ever made it to that appointment.
ASK QUESTIONS! BE INFORMED!
DON’T JUST FOLLOW THE CURRENT BECAUSE SWIMMING UP STREAM IS MORE DIFFICULT!
You know what’s really difficult? Burying your baby. After that, swimming up stream is a walk in the park.
