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Friday, April 18th, 2008
2008-04-18-13:30 - Naturopathy, anti-Vaxors, and whooping cough, oh my
Back when you were a kid, do remember kids getting of whooping cough? I suspect few if anyone reads this blog does. There are two reason for that. First, a vaccine for whooping cough was discovered in at the beginning of the 20th century. Second, modern antibiotics became available in the middle of the 20th century.

But what happens in the 21st century when a child isn't vaccinated and and his mother tries to treat him with alternate medicine?
The baby was 9 months old, his birth weight was 8 lbs 5 ounces. At six months he weighed just shy of 20 pounds. Today he weighed 15 pounds - he was a skeleton and he was dying.

Mom had brought him in after treatment by his naturopath had failed. Constant coughing had made it impossible for him to take in adequate nutrition and starvation, coupled with a raging bacterial pneumonia were conspiring to shortly end his very short life.

We worked feverishly. Intubation, IV boluses, major antibiotics, vasopressors. All futile.

At 9:03 pm, after 30 minutes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation we pronounced him dead.

This boy had pertussis [whooping cough]. His mother choose not to vaccinate him.

6 comments | >>let me tell you this about that!


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