Stories That Will Infuriate You
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How did a two-month vaccine reaction escalate into a life-threatening emergency?
My son was vaccine injured and I'm sick of being lumped together with anti-vaxxers. Now disclaimer, his vaccine injury has been confirmed and diagnosed as 100% legit. I'm not an anti-vaxxer and I'm sick of having to say that when I talk about his injury. I made this on a throwaway because the story gets personal. My son was about two and a half months old when he was vaccine injured. He was born with an extremely rare autoimmune disorder that wasn't diagnosed at birth. Of course, we assumed he was a healthy kid. Despite two previous infections, a bacterial and a viral one, we went to get his two-month shots. I decided that I wanted to have a delayed schedule and not do all of his shots at once because I was a new mom and I was a little scared, especially because of his previous infections.
That fear would go on to save my little boy's life. Before we even left the clinic that day, I noticed a weird spot on the soft part of his head, but I dismissed it because it looked like a drop of soda and I was drinking a Pepsi at the time, so I figured I may have dribbled off the can and onto his head. But by the end of that night, his entire head was covered in what I can only describe as green pus that was coming from his fontanelle. And when I gave him a bath, he was screaming in pain every time I touched his tender head. I took him to the emergency room because he was vaccinated on a Friday and his pediatrician's office would be closed until Monday morning. And as soon as I said, I think he might have a vaccine injury.
It's like a flip was switched and they all looked at me like I was wearing a tinfoil hat. I'm sure they assumed that I was an anti-vaxxer, but if that were the case, he wouldn't have been vaxxed. They sent me home with no tests and no answers. The next day, things were only getting worse. The green pus had now dried and was peeling off of his head, some of that was still coming out of his soft spot, though. He was actively losing his hair, and I could also tell that he was having trouble breathing. I went again to the emergency room and they may as well have laughed in my face. They told me that it was cradle cap and sent me home again without doing any tests and without any treatments. It was now Sunday night and the soft spot on his head was actually bleeding and he was definitely having a hard time breathing.
He had now lost nearly all of his full head of beautiful hair and by now his entire body was completely covered in a bright red rash and it was clear he was in so much pain. I was terrified. I took him for the third time to the ER and I remember the doctor looking at me like I was an idiot and saying in the rudest voice I've ever heard, why are you here again? I remember feeling stupid. They gave me a prescription for cradle cap shampoo. I was bawling my eyes out and I remember asking, can you at least bandage his head? Because the soft spot is now a giant scab. All he said was, there's nothing we can do. This was clearly not cradle cap, and I knew something was very wrong. They told me his entire body covered in a rash was simply a diaper rash.
I was scared my baby wasn't going to make it through that night.
Why did multiple ER visits dismiss the baby’s worsening symptoms as cradle cap?
I stayed up all night with my sick, exhausted son, and as soon as his pediatrician's office opened at 8am, I called and said I needed to make an appointment now because it's an emergency. Luckily, they had an opening for 8.30, so we packed up and left right away. I walked in crying and told her everything that happened. She took her stethoscope out and listened to his breathing and immediately called for an ambulance. The doctor said that it was clear that he was straining to breathe and obviously was battling one if not more infections. By this time, his entire body was red and there was no part of him that was clear from what looked like a horrible rash. I heard from the doctors at the children's unit in the hospital that our doctor had some words with the emergency room doctors because she wasn't happy with how we were brushed off.
They did an x-ray on his chest and a blood test.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
How did a two-month vaccine reaction escalate into a life-threatening emergency?
0:17–3:27
2
Why did multiple ER visits dismiss the baby’s worsening symptoms as cradle cap?
3:27–10:47
3
How was the correct diagnosis of pneumonia, MRSA and sepsis discovered at the pediatric hospital?
10:47–20:35
4
What is X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (X-SCID) and how did it change their treatment plan?
20:35–24:35