The following excerpt is from a statement made by a distraught grandmother testifying before the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, regarding vaccine injury compensation:

"My name is Donna Gary. I am a constituent of Senator Kennedy's from Massachusetts. Our family should have celebrated our very first granddaughter's first birthday last month. Instead, we will commemorate the anniversary of her death at the end of this month.

"Our granddaughter, Lee Ann, was just 8 weeks old when her mother took her to the doctor for her routine checkup. That included, of course, her first DPT inoculation and oral polio vaccine. "In all her entire 8 weeks of life this lovable, extremely alert baby had never produced such a blood-curdling scream as she did at the moment the shot was given. Neither had her mother ever before seen her back arch as it did while she screamed. She was inconsolable. Even her daddy could not understand Lee Ann's uncharacteristic screaming and crying.

"Four hours later Lee Ann was dead. 'Crib death,' the doctor said --?'SIDS.'?'Could it be connected to the shot?' her parents implored.' ?'No.' 'But she just had her first DPT shot this afternoon. Could there possibly be any connection to it?' 'No, no connection at all,' the emergency room doctor said definitely.

"My husband and I hurried to the hospital the following morning after Lee Ann's death to talk with the pathologist before the autopsy. We wanted to make sure he was alerted to her DPT inoculation such a short time before her death -- just in case there was something else he could look for to make the connection. He was unavailable to talk with us. We waited two-and-a-half hours. Finally, we got to talk to another doctor after the autopsy had been completed. He said it was 'SIDS.'

"In the months before Lee Ann was born I regularly checked with a friend as to the state of her grandchild's condition. He is nearly a year-and-a-half older than Lee Ann. On his first DPT shot he passed out cold for 15 minutes, right in the pediatrician's office. 'Normal reaction for some children,' the pediatrician reassured. The parents were scared, but they knew what a fine doctor they had. They trusted his judgment.

"When it was time for the second shot they asked 'Are you sure it's all right? Is it really necessary?' Their pediatrician again reassured them. He told them how awful it was to experience, as he had, one of his infant patient's bout with whooping cough. That baby had died.

"They gave him his second DPT shot that day. He became brain-damaged.

"This past week I had an opportunity to read through printed copies of the hearings of this committee. I am ?dismayed to learn that this same talk has been going on for years, and nothing has seemed to progress to incorporate what seems so obvious and necessary to keep from destroying any more babies, and to compensate financially those who have already been damaged for life.

"How accurate are our statistics on adverse reactions to vaccines when parents have been told, are still being told, 'No connection to the shot, no connection at all?'

"What about the mother I have recently talked with who has a 4-year-old?brain-damaged son? On all three of his DPT shots he had a convulsion in the presence of the pediatrician. 'No connection,' the pediatrician assured.

"I talked with a father in a town adjoining ours whose son died at the age of 9 weeks, several months before our own granddaughter's death. It was the day after his DPT inoculation. 'SIDS' is the statement on the death certificate.

"Are the statistics that the medical world loves to quote to say, 'There is no connection,' really accurate, or are they based on poor diagnoses, poor recordkeeping? What is being done to provide a safer vaccine? Who is overseeing? Will it be the same scientists and doctors who have been overseeing in the past? How much longer does the public have to wait? How are physicians and clinics going to be held accountable to see that parents are informed of the possible reactions? And how are those children who should not receive the vaccine to be identified before they are damaged -- or dead?

"Today is the National Day of Prayer. My prayer is that this committee be instrumental in doing what needs to be done --?and soon. May there not be yet another year pass by with more children afflicted, and some dead, because those who can do so refuse to 'make the right connection.'"(5)

PERSONAL STORIES:

Our beautiful daughter was born on February 14 and died on April 17. What was unusual was that earlier on the day she died I had taken her to the Military Base hospital for her two month checkup. The doctor told me that she was just perfect. Then the doctor said that she needed four shots. I replied Four!? She assured me that it was completely normal and that it was better to give her all at such an early age (because she wouldn't remember the shots). That evening after feeding [our daughter] we laid her down to sleep and checked on her 45 minutes later and discovered her dead. I told the police, coroner and investigators that I thought it was the shots because she was perfectly fine that day and before the shots. But after 3 weeks we finally got the answer from the autopsy that it was indeed SIDS. To this day I believe that it was the shots and no one can convince me otherwise.

Thank you for your informative website. My eight-week-old daughter is scheduled to get her first dose of vaccines next week, but this website has helped change my mind. I didn't feel she should receive her first dose of the Hep B vaccine when she was one day old and I refused to let them give it to her despite the pressure by hospital staff. I have been to the funeral of a baby who supposedly died of SIDS. The mother swears it was from vaccinations because her daughter had been vaccinated 3 days before and had a hugely swollen leg and was throwing up after receiving the shots. Seeing the baby girl lying dead in her bassinet at the funeral, I can't bring myself to put my own daughter at risk. Only after becoming a parent can I begin to understand the pain that so many of these families hurt by vaccinations are going through. I have a horrible feeling about having my daughter vaccinated, and after seeing this website and a little girl lying cold and still I refuse to put my baby in danger. I hope more parents listen to their instincts. Thank you!

I am writing this to share my story of the effects vaccinations have had on my children. First, I would like to start off with my 3 living children. My son and my daughter both had reactions to DTaP on 2 occasions. I was told the first time that their reactions had nothing to do with the shots, so I allowed further vaccines. Upon recieving the 4th dose of DTaP, both of them had swollen, red, hard, and hot legs, and both were blistered at the sight of injection. I became very concerned at this point, but was told it was a minor reaction. Less then a year later, I delivered my 4th child, a daughter. I noticed that anytime she was vaccinated she would spike a fever of 104.2F and had respiratory problems. Again, I was told this had nothing to do with the shots. I then read, "A Shot In the Dark", and this raised my concerns for my children when they were due to have further vaccines. I decided against further immunizations for my kids. My son is now going into kindergarten and I knew a requirement was that he have boosters. I attained a religous exemption form to avoid the shots and will do so for my girls as well. Since the reactions of my children, I have been seeking more information about adverse effects of vaccines. On August 29, 2003, after an argument with my childrens' pediatrician about this subject, I came home and found your website. As I was looking through I found where you linked SIDS with the DTaP. This is where my story becomes devastating. In 1995, I had a child die of SIDS. After reading your information, I dug out his shot records and baby book only to find that he had the DTaP just 3 weeks prior to his death, and during those 3 weeks, my records show that I had him to the pediatrician 4 times for respiratory infection and 2 times to the emergency room for respiratory distress related to the "diagnosed" upper respiratory infections. These symptoms began within 2 days after the administration of the shot! [My son] was last seen in the E.R. on 10-29-95 for this reason. He died on November 1, 1995 of SIDS. I am convinced after my research that the DTaP is responsible for his death. Furthermore, the 3 precious children I have left will not recieve another vaccine! I am grieving the loss of my son all over again, but I thank you because without having read your information I would have never known the link between vaccines and SIDS or any of the other new information I have learned, and could have been persuaded to continue to vaccinate the others. I am thankful for your insights, and am relieved to have the confusion of vaccinating over. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that shots are not for my family, and not in their best interests. I have also concluded that the medical business is one big industry, a viscous cycle, to be blunt, a cycle to keep bringing in business by injecting heathy children with germs and toxic additives so that a percentage of them can come back and rack up more exspense in X amount of years with cancers, immune disease etc. I also question now the diagnosis of my [first] son. He has been diagnosed with ADHD, and has consistent behavior problems. I will continue to search your sight as well as others to find the answers. If you have any statistics or ideas, I would appreciate that input. Again, thank you for your release of knowledge.