It Took Two Months and Nearly a Million Dollars to Save an Unvaccinated 6-Year-Old From Tetanus

Gizmodo ^

[Simon Green]

A new case report from the Centers for Disease Control released Thursday starkly highlights the costs of not vaccinating children. It details an unvaccinated 6-year-old boy’s encounter with tetanus—and the hugely expensive, two-month-long effort it took to save his life.

Tetanus is caused by the namesake bacteria Clostridium tetani. More accurately, it’s what happens when the soil-loving C. tetani gets into your body—usually through an open cut—and spews out an extremely potent toxin. This toxin can quickly paralyze and send your muscles into constant spasms, beginning with the jaw (if you know anything about tetanus, it’s probably that it causes lockjaw). These spasms can then spread to the chest, back, and gut, leading to painful fractures, problems breathing, and even the complete loss of bowel control. It’s a brutal disease, one that can take months to fully recover from. Even with treatment, 10 percent of victims ultimately die.

Thankfully, we’ve had a working vaccine for tetanus since the 1920s, and vaccination has virtually eliminated the disease in countries with decent healthcare. Most every person in the U.S. is fully vaccinated for tetanus by the time they enter school, with the first of five shots happening at the age of 2 months (booster shots every 10 years afterward are recommended). Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for the unnamed child in this report, since his family had chosen to not vaccinate him for any condition.

According to the authors, the 6-year-old boy from Oregon had gotten a forehead scrape while playing outside on a farm sometime in 2017. The wound was cleaned and sutured at home, but six days later the boy began experiencing lockjaw and muscle spasms. He then started arching his back and neck involuntarily and eventually could barely breathe, prompting his family to call for help.

[ExGeeEye]

And leeches. Don't forget the leeches.

And one of these...

though as a piece of technology it may be too advanced.

[Flick Lives]

Many feel it is tantamount to child abuse to pump 9 antigens into a child’s immature immune system (along with preservatives and foreign fetal cells) and induce a cytokine storm that irreversibly damages a child like this. The family trusted and presented their daughter for the needle, a decision they will forever regret. Please don’t be quick to judge those who no longer trust that our corporations and government agencies have our best interests at heart.

—

Like so many things today, a system that was good has been perverted thru greed and government corruption into something bad. Much like the FBI. Or the DOJ.

[SMGFan]

and we foot the cost of their choice

[trebb]

Funny how they showcase those who might have been saved the trouble with a vaccination but never mention those who have serious complications or die from having a vaccination...we have 18 month old Richie front and center on FR lately which must be....inconvenient to some who think every vaccination that can be developed must be mandatory for everyone ....because.....

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Thank you for the most reasoned, thoughtful , articulate response I have gotten on this subject. Thanks for also taking the effort to explain your position.

I will reflect now on the points you’ve raised.

[Mmmike]

There’s nothing to break from. This is a straightforward statement of something that happened.

[Mmmike]

This forum does not belong to you and your fellow Gnostics. The time and place are perfectly fine. This is simply a report about something that happened recently. What you infer from it is what you infer from it.

[Tired of Taxes]

Okay, I misunderstood this line in the comments section:

They only gave him one round of the childhood shot and a booster shot used to prevent/treat tetanus in someone not properly vaccinated.

I see now that both shots were given in the hospital.

[stanne]

Did you read the article?

[Tired of Taxes]

Okay, I misunderstood this line in the comments section:

They only gave him one round of the childhood shot and a booster shot used to prevent/treat tetanus in someone not properly vaccinated.

I see now that both shots were given in the hospital (?).

But, the point is that, in the old days, parents brought their children to the hospital for a tetanus shot after they were injured - right? You weren't given a series of tetanus shots as an infant long before you were ever injured - correct?

Today, children are expected to receive a schedule of 5 tetanus shots (that also include pertussis and diphtheria) beginning as newborn babies:

1st shot - Age 2 months
2nd shot - Age 4 months
3rd shot - Age 6 months
4th shot - Age 15-18 months
5th shot - Age 4-6 years

Source

The commenters on that article are complaining that the child didn't receive that tetanus shot schedule of 5 shots before he was 5 years old.

By the way, I don't think doctors ever gave me a tetanus shot, even though I had cuts requiring stitches many times as a child. (I'm not anti-vax, by the way, just anti-mandatory-vax.)

[Mmmike]

You had some kind of problem with “the wound was cleaned and sutured at home.” I don’t see what the problem is. Do you have some secret Gnostic knowledge regarding the author’s “true, hidden point” that he failed to make explicitly? But you “know where he’s going with that,” right?

[Tired of Taxes]

Speaking of taxes...

A tax on every vaccine funds the federal government’s “Vaccine Injury Compensation Program”:

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/vaccine-injuries-federal-compensation-program-32287.html

Here’s how much money has been paid out for vaccine injuries:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Vaccine_Injury_Compensation_Program#Compensations

(For the record, I’m not “anti-vax.” Just anti-mandatory-vax.)

[Mmmike]

You might die from your infection but at least someone didn’t tell you what to do, right?

[ConservativeMind]

You live up to your name.

[lastchance]

I missed she had to suture and I should have written a non-puncture wound that has been properly cleansed instead of scrape. I wrote scrape to mean a surface wound in contrast to a puncture. Now that cleansing would mean properly flushing it out to make sure there was no dirt in the wound. But my main point stands that most of the time a tetanus shot is given in case of a puncture wound.

[ConservativeMind]

She wasn’t an antivaxer. The kid had already had a tetanus shot and when the signs that it wasn’t enough to address the problem occurred, it was already too late to get another.

[lastchance]

5 shots seems a little over much. I know I got plenty of tetanus shots as I was a bit adventurous. But that was when injured. Sure I had the required immunization then the 1 booster but after that only as stated above. Could be my mom had the sense to know when medical care for an injury would be needed along with a booster.

The heavy schedule may be because doctors know so many parents are feckless no-counts who haven’t a clue about basic child care let alone how to deal with a child stepping on a rusty nail.

[lastchance]

leeches are used in certain microsurgeries. Clean and sterile ones of course. Leeches that is.

[ConservativeMind]

How does lessening those two items reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine, which is not those items?

[ConservativeMind]

The same is true with HIV and all the other diseases with easy ways to never get them.