(JAMAICA OBSERVER) WHEN Kerrian Powell Simpson took her daughter Adrianna Davis to be vaccinated on June 14, 2017, the mother of five thought it would have been just another regular day.
However, since that day, her child has not been the same. A child who would run around on her own and who would talk in sentences, cannot now get around without being assisted and is unable to speak.
“Before, she was doing everything. She was walking, talking, she run, she climbed. She was doing everything normal. She walked from she was 11 months old and from six months old she saying Dada,” Powell Simpson told the Jamaica Observerin an interview.
She even has videos of her child’s development.
The St Ann mother is calling on the Ministry of Health to intervene as she needs urgent assistance to get treatment for her daughter in Canada next month. The child has already missed a September 28, 2018 appointment and was given another for November.
“All I am asking is that they give me some support to bring her back to normal,” Powell Simpson said.
She said she has been in contact with personnel at the St Ann Health Department who have promised to meet and get back to her. However, she has not gotten a response to know if they intend to assist her financially.
The mother said she has spent all she had trying to get the best healthcare for her child and is now in dire need to get her daughter treatment at The Hospital for Sick Children in Canada.
The doctors have not blamed vaccination and medication given for seizure as the cause of her daughter’s illness, but Powell Simpson strongly believes her daughter’s present medical condition started when she took her for vaccination at the Steer Town Health Centre last year and became worse when she received medication at the St Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital.
The ordeal had seen her child admitted on numerous occasions and treated in at least three major hospitals across Jamaica.
Powell Simpson, who now has a copy of her daughter’s hospital files, said that numerous tests including an MRI, X-ray, and an ultrasound have all shown no abnormality in the child. She said doctors diagnosed Adrianna with a metabolical disorder.
Powell Simpson said that while doing her own research, she found that a metabolical disorder can be triggered by vaccines.
She told the Sunday Observer that the painful experience started when she took her then 18-month old daughter to be vaccinated. She said on the day her daughter was given her MMR, DPT and polio vaccines, which included two injections and an oral drop.
“A few hours later she was just crying and shaking,” she said.
“I thought it was just the pain from the vaccine so, I took some time off from work to stay with her,” she added.
While at home with her child, she realised that the youngster’s condition was not improving.
A child who could get off the bed on her own could no longer do it, she was crying consistently and not sleeping, Powell Simpson said.
“My sister noticed that when she tried to get up, she fall…she was moving like a drunk person,” she added.
She said whenever she moved suddenly with her daughter, the child would appear frightened.
She then rushed her daughter to the doctor and was told to take the child back to the health centre where she was vaccinated. Powell Simpson said it was the weekend and the centre was closed; she took the child to the St Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital. She said that she was also told at the hospital to take the child back to the health centre. She took the child back to the health centre the following day.
Powell Simpson said the nurse wrote a referral and sent her back to the hospital because no doctor was at the health centre. After an observation, the child was admitted to the hospital with the expectation for her to do a CT scan.
“The doctor said it (the baby’s reaction to vaccines) will pass in three months,” Powell Simpson recalled.
She believes this would have happened if the child was not later given medication which caused her health to deteriorate.
She said that when the child was seen by another doctor, that doctor suggested an MRI be done instead. The baby was discharged from the hospital to return for an MRI later.
The worried mother called a retired nurse with whom she had a good relationship, who suggested that Powell Simpson take the baby to the Bustamante Hospital for Children.
After going back to the health centre and failing to get the referral to take the child to the Children’s hospital, Powell Simpson said she took the child without the document.
Staff at the Bustamante Hospital also suggested that the child do an MRI. However, with no near dates available, they suggested that she should go back to St Ann’s Bay to get the MRI done and return with the results.
Powell Simpson said she had an 11 am appointment to get the MRI done in St James. However, after noon she was still at the St Ann’s Bay Hospital waiting for an available ambulance to take her to St James.
“The baby had not eaten the day before because she was not to eat before the MRI,” she said.
With no ambulance coming, the mother asked if she could take her child by public transportation. She said she was given the permission to.
“I was given a sedative to give the baby when we are near,” the mother recounted.
Powell Simpson hired a taxi for $15, 000 and took the child to St James, accompanied by her mother.
With things already going wrong, her day got worse when the car transporting them to Montego Bay was hit by another vehicle. The other driver, whom she said was at fault, was told of the urgency to get to the lab and he agreed to drive behind them to the facility. However, Davis said he changed his mind soon after.
“When I get there, I met a lady by the name of Sandra Hall who was very upset that they had sent me from the hospital with the baby like that,” Powell Davis said.
She said the woman arranged for an ambulance to take them back to St Ann’s Bay after the MRI.
Powell Simpson said she was told at the lab not to feed the baby as yet because everything in her body was sleeping so she would choke on it.
Hours after getting back to the St Ann’s Bay hospital, her baby awoke and was crying for something to eat. Powell Simpson thought that after not eating from the day before, it was time to feed the child.
She fed the child who went back to sleep until the following day.
“Nobody told me I should not feed the baby,” she said.
“In the morning she started vomiting and they did a suction to remove the food,” she said.
The child was soon after placed on oxygen and started receiving medication for seizure.
“They gave her Dilantin and Phenobarbital. She never woke up from that,” Powell Simpson said. She said she tried to keep up with everything that was happening to her daughter, capturing many moments on camera.
When the mother realised that Adrianna was becoming much weaker, she asked that her child stop getting the two medications and get only one.
She said her child had become very weak and her eyes appeared as if she was going blind. She said a doctor later came and agreed that the infant should not get any more of the medication.
Her problems did not end there.
“After she get discharged, I notice the baby face start twist and she developed this high fever. She was not passing any urine or faeces,” she said.
According to Powell Simpson when she went back to the hospital, the child was examined and again sent home. She was told to bring back the child if she had not passed her faeces. The child had to be rushed back to the hospital the next day.
After numerous tests and hospitalisation, Powell Simpson is broke and depressed. The child was unable to do a test, recommended by a neurosurgeon, to confirm if she has a metabolical disorder because she could not find the over $100, 000 to pay for the test.
She said that the many tests and doctors visits drained her financially and emotionally.
She pointed out that it was her boss who paid for her to see the neurosurgeon.
Powell Simpson believes much of the ordeal her daughter has been through could have been avoided if some medical staff were more compassionate.
She said that during a visit to the University Hospital of the West Indies, she was told that the child did not have seizures.
“And they were treating my child for seizures,” the distraught mother said.
The mother said her child has shown significant improvement in her ability to move around since she has been trying different home remedies. However, her child has a far way to go and she wants her to get the best treatment. Powell Simpson said that during her research, she found home remedies which had been helping to strengthen her daughter’s legs, allowing her to move around more.
Powell Simpson has been forced to give up her job to stay home and care for her youngest child and is now sceptical about allowing Adrianna to receive other vaccines.
“They keep putting out that kids cannot live without it (vaccination) and whenever it damage your kid, you are left alone. They say one in every 1,000 can be affected, so what must the one do. They are talking about metabolical disorder; the vaccine can cause it,” she said.
She believes that more education should be done on vaccination and parents should have the right to choose if they want their child to be vaccinated.
A spokesperson at the St Ann’s Bay Hospital promised to check the matter and respond to the Sunday Observer, which did not happen as the paper went to press.
