Parents - Can you remember exactly what you were doing with your child when they were 47 days old? Seems to be a random question to ask, and one that I wouldn’t be surprised if you 
were not able to accurately answer. Scott and Deanna Gromowski will certainly not forget that they were saying goodbye to their newborn baby son, Ian on his 47th day of life.
Ian was born 2 weeks premature. Weighing in at an impressive 8 lbs, 1.5 oz and 20 1/2 inches tall, he seemed to be as healthy as any baby should be. Soon after he was born, the doctor’s decided to move Ian to the NICU due to fear of Meconium Aspiration (MAS), which is the inhalation of meconium and amniotic fluid. This can occur before, during or after birth and is very common. In the most extreme of cases, the infant is placed in ICU for 2 weeks while the fluid drains from the lungs.
After being in the NICU for 24 hours, it was confirmed that Ian had MAS along with a fever and rapid breathing. He had to be fed via a stomach tube. Despite his condition, the doctors remained confident that Ian would be released to go home that day. Scott and Deanna were overjoyed and started preparing to go home with their new baby boy.
Despite the doctor’s confidence of Ian’s expected release, Deanna had something eating away at her - Mommy Instinct. She noticed that Ian seemed to be constantly in pain and wincing at it. The nurses were called and Ian was transferred again to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Mom and Dad waited patiently for news on his condition.
On day 4 of his most recent trip to the NICU, Ian was celebrating his one week birthday. Things seemed to be looking up for the little fighter, and the doctor’s again gave the promise of his release the following day. All that was left was to take a hearing test and receive a Hepatitis B vaccination. He received his shot and by the evening, he had had a severe allergic reaction. He broke out in hives, and the Doctor’s and Nurses had no explanation - except for one: “It can’t be the vaccine. Vaccines don’t cause this type of reaction.”
Over the next few days, Ian became increasingly more ill. His platelet count went down, more hives appeared, his posture was described as “seizure like” and he was no longer eating. In addition, he was having trouble breathing. One doctor believed that Ian had some kind of virus and only had a 50/50 chance of survival. In the days to come, Ian progressed to stopping breathing every so often. Eventually his breathing ceased all together and he became filled with fluid. Scott and Deanna had Ian baptized and on the same day they made the risky decision to have him transported to Children’s Hospital. There was a high risk that Ian would not survive the transport.
To every one’s surprise, Ian kept on fighting and made it successfully to Children’s Hospital where a battery of tests were done, blood was taken, and a bone marrow biopsy was done. Scott and Deanna watched close by in horror as their son was examined, and tested. Deanna says on her website:
“I cannot imagine how my son was feeling at that moment. He was such a good boy. While Scott and I were devastated and exhausted, we would have given anything to have traded places with Ian.”
As he became progressively worse, every department of Children’s Hospital saw Ian, from Dermatology to Infectious Diseases. No one had a definite explanation for Ian’s condition or if it would worsen or improve. The only thing everyone seemed to agree on was that it “definitely wasn’t the Hepatitis Vaccine.” He received blood transfusions, and antibiotics. Rashes continued to develop, and it was found that he was allergic to some of the antibiotics that were being administered.
When Ian was just one month old, he went into surgery to have a tube put into his stomach to drain the fluid that had developed inside of him. This would also hopefully help his kidneys which had also begun to shut down. “Through it all,” Deanna recounts, “Ian remained a peaceful strong boy. He made us proud to be his parents.” After some time, his Kidneys began to work on their own. As wonderful as this was to hear, there was still a long road ahead, and Ian’s liver had swollen so badly, that it was visible through his stomach which was very swollen and looked very much like an over inflated balloon. The liver had began to heal itself, but Deanna and Scott knew that all of the medications were proving to be counter productive for Ian. They requested that he be taken off all pain medication and soon after this decision, Ian began to look better. He would open his eyes, and his movement increased dramatically.
No sooner could Deanna and Scott be given a glimmer of hope, Ian took a turn for the worse. During one of his Bone Marrow biopsies, he was accidentally given one of the antibiotics that he was found to be allergic to. They placed Ian on a Bone Marrow Transplant list, but he became increasingly more sick and his breathing which should have been at 100%, hovered just as 60%. His body was giving up on him, but Ian fought to the very last moment.
His last breath was taken at 1AM on August 10th, 2007. He was just 47 days old.
Deanna and Scott did much research into baby Ian’s condition and soon found documentation that proved that though uncommon, there are such things as allergic reactions to vaccinations. In addition they found that there is no treatment available for allergic reactions to such vaccines.
On their website, Ian’s Voice, Deanna and Scott share this bit of information:
Fact: It is suggested that infants get the hepatitis B shot before they leave the hospital. It is not required.
Fact: You can work out your own vaccination schedule and guidelines with your pediatrician.
Fact: You can order vaccines directly from the drug company with fewer additives and in single doses.
Fact: An infant’s immune system is very weak at birth. The hepatitis B vaccine can cause serious reactions if the system is already compromised, as was Ian’s.
Deanna went a step further and had a professional at Children’s Hospital write a case report on Ian’s condition and submitted it to see if there were any other like cases. It was found that several like cases had been reported - let alone those that had not been reported.
One of Ian’s neonatologists at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin did report Ian’s case to VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System). She also wanted to document Ian’s life in a case study for the Journal of American Academy of Pediatrics. Children’s Hospital would not allow her to do this.
It’s important that as a parent to know your rights and be made aware of the dangers of vaccinations. Though often helpful in warding off illness, the fact of the matter is that vaccines can also be dangerous. If your child has a reaction to a vaccination, be sure to have a VAERS report done so that more parents can be made aware of the ever growing number of negative reaction cases.
Had Deanna and Scott been made aware of the risks and sometimes fatal side effects of the Hepatitis vaccine, they might have decided against their son getting the vaccine that would cost him his life. Different people have different opinions on vaccines and their benefits - one thing is for certain - Ian was a strong little boy who fought to the end of his short life. He was determined to live, but you can only survive so long when your body is working against you.
Ian’s detailed story and pictures can be found on the website that Deanna created in his honor. The pictures are very difficult to look at, but tell Ian’s story more accurately that anyone else could.
It’s as best time as any to say that Ian is gone, but will never ever be forgotten.
The Center for Disease Control said on Friday that H1N1 is widespread through 48 states. People are heading to their doctor’s to obtain the vaccine to protect them from this dangerous and life threatening flu strain. While the vaccine is something that many people do not think twice about obtaining if they have the opportunity, the constant research into the vaccine is turning up risks and side effects that are causing some people are a bit more hesitant in getting the vaccine.
A few weeks ago, I blogged about Vitamin D and how the rise in Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to the rise in autism, but vitamin D is not the only deficiency that has been linked to autism and some people are suggesting that a deficiency in vitamin A may be responsible.
