The rotavirus vaccine is one of the most popular immunizations on the schedule. While it is mostly an understated part of the vaccine process, some parents in New Zealand are raising awareness for the vaccine’s potential deadly side.
David and Sonya Cooper were interviewed in the New Zealand Herald following their infant’s battle with the rotavirus vaccine side effects.
“Ripped to shreds with stress,” they said as their baby was wisked away by surgeons at Auckland’s Starship children’s hospital. While their baby Jude made it through surgery, he remains under close watch by hospital staff.
Sonya says that following the rotavirus vaccine, Jude changed.
“He started refusing feeds, his nappies dried up and he was constantly grizzly, lethargic and spent his day flopped in pain in my arms.”
He was vomitting and his conditioned worsed, symptoms which were seemingly derived from the rotavirus vaccine.
Jude was initially sent home with a gastro bug diagnosis, only to return three days later after he was unable to keep his milk down.
An xray showed an obstruction in Jude’s intestines.
“This is when we were informed that Jude’s suffering was a result of the rotavirus vaccine. The live virus multiplied and spread hard and fast through Jude’s tiny body,” Sonya said.
The Coopers say they aren’t “anti-vaccine” by definition, but only want to warn of the potential side-effects.
“Just because the benefits outweigh the risks, doesn’t mean we should forgo the communicating risks.
“In New Zealand we are fortunate to have a good health care available, so it shouldn’t get to the point where we are told urgent surgery is the only option.”
Unfortunately for them, in this day and age, any inquisition into vaccine safety, no matter how reasonable, comes with the applied “anti-vaxxer” label.
For the Coopers, had they understood the inherint risk of the rotavaccine, they potentially could have gotten Jude appropriate help much earlier in the process.
“If we had known more about the risks, we would have been more pushy the first time we saw the doctors instead of waving it off as a bad tummy bug.”
Doctors are refusing to blame the vaccine for Jude’s case, unsurprisingly.