New Autism Cure - breakthrough treatments and cures for autism

Melissa hardly ever got sick. Even when she did, she’d take some over-the-counter medication, head into work and tough through it. When you’re a mom, you learn to deal with minor aches, pains and colds because there’s no such thing as  a”sick day”. Minor bumps and bruises are something you also expect to get when you’re taking care of children.  When Melissa accidentally slammed her hand in a door,  she simply went to the emergency room to be safe. Little did she know one precautionary visit to the emergency room would change her life forever.

When she arrived, the doctor asked her if she had gotten a Tetanus shot. It had been years since she had gotten one, so the doctor ordered one right away. In addition, she had not had her flu shot either, so this was also administered. Melissa went home assuming she had been guarded against any further complications.

A week later, Melissa developed a sore throat and a cough, which are typical flu shot symptoms. She took some Tylenol, and proceeded to carry on her life as usual. About three weeks after she first noticed the flu-like symptoms, they progressed to nausea which sent her back to the emergency room. There, she was given a shot for nausea and sent home. 2 days later, Melissa had gotten progressively worse and went to another hospital’s emergency room where she described her hands, arms, feet and toes were numb. The hospital admitted her into the hospital to try and diagnose what was wrong.

Later in her room, she got even worse. She was dizzy, had blurred vision, couldn’t swallow and was losing her ability to speak. The hospital ordered an MRI and a CT scan. The CT scan showed lesions on her brain in the area that controls basic motor skills - seeing, speech and walking. The MRI was just as bad - the protective covering had been stripped from her spinal cord. Based on their findings, doctors gave Melissa’s family little to no hope of her survival.  They were certain that she was not going to make it through this as the odds were stacked against her.

The day after she arrived at the hospital for the third time since her Flu and Tetanus shots, Melissa was transferred to the ICU unit of Barrow Neurological Institute.  For 1 1/2 weeks, Melissa remained in the ICU while her family stood by waiting for her to meet her expected death.  The doctors diagnosed her with post-viral rhombencephalitis - an infection of the brain affecting motor skills. It was explained that Melissa’s body had began to attack and destroy her brain stem.

For the next 12 days, Melissa was given a 7 day treatment of immunoglobulin to restore her anti-bodies as “the plasma was too dirty to fight off whatever was attacking her body. She spent 2 more weeks in the ICU and was given Steroids.

Thankfully, Melissa has not met the immediate demise that doctors had expected her to. She has been out of the hospital for about 3 weeks now but has a long road of rehabilitation ahead of her due to her during her lengthy stay in the hospital and the various medical procedures she endured that caused her to lose much of her balance and strength.  She is still very swollen from the steroids which she will have to continue taking for the next 2 1/2 months. She also reports problems sleeping and a problem with acne, which she had never experienced before.

Melissa’s story and many others remind us to take extra care when getting any kind of vaccine or medical treatment no matter how routine it is. It is the talk of many medical experts that the H1N1 -Swine Flu Vaccine can cause birth defects including autism when administered to women who are pregnant. It is very important to do your homework  and know the side effects of any and all medications and vaccines that you or your children receive. It is true that medicine is advancing everyday, but if we are not educated in side effects, etc, then it advances at our expense and that of our loved ones.

It is worth mentioning that it is not yet known what exactly caused Melissa’s illness - however they are very certain it was the flu shot that she received - particularly because of the rapid progression of her condition within 1 week of receiving the vaccine, which was not notated on her chart. This is also being investigated.

Bottom line:   Know your facts - do your research - ask questions.

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.