Suing the drug companies: Isabella Thomas with Terry, six, and Michael, eight
Daily Mail Oct 17, 2000
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THE Thomases, Isabella, 43, and husband Ian, 42, from Brighton, have four sons, Ian, 22, Nigel, 20, Michael, eight, and Terry, six. Ian and Nigel, both university students, had measles, mumps and rubella naturally as children, with no adverse effects. But Michael and Terry were vaccinated and had severe reactions. Both went on to develop autism and bowel disease, and the family has been awarded legal aid to sue the drugs companies who make the MMR vaccine.
Isabella says: ‘By the time Michael was vaccinated, at 14 months, rumours about the MMR vaccine were beginning to surface. I questioned it, but the doctor insisted it was perfectly safe.
‘After the jab, he went pale. I took him home and he slept for an hour, but when he woke, he started screaming. He was clearly in terrible pain. The look on his face terrified me. I’d never seen a baby that scared before.
‘All the next week, he was very sleepy and I couldn’t establish eye contact with him. There were no smiles, no happy Michael. He never recovered —I’d watched the life go out of him.
‘Afterwards, he started having horrendous temperatures. He became aggressive, hyperactive and out of control. but the doctors insisted there was nothing wrong.
‘Terry was born when Michael was two. He reacted to his third round of DTP Jabs, had fits and got a got of high fevers. They thought it was petit mal — a mild form of epilepsy.
‘We saw a consultant, and he mentioned that Terry had not had his MMR. I told him I was worried about the MMR, both because of the mild fits and because of Michael.
‘He said: "Mrs Thomas, if Terry is prone to having convulsions and you don’t give him the MMR, if he catches measles and he has a convulsion, he will die." He frightened the life out of me.
‘Terry was 21 months old when he had the MMR. He was very pale afterwards and we put him in our bed so we could keep an eye on him. In the middle of the night, he gave a shout, his eyes rolled back and he went rigid.
‘The next morning, when be woke up, he’d stopped talking, stopped smiling and wouldn’t play with his toys. His eyes were dull. Again, he never recovered.
‘When Michael was three,I was told he was autistic. He was four when his bowel disease was confirmed. They refused to believe that Terry had the same condition, so he wasn’t diagnosed until he was five.
‘What’s it like living with them? They don’t sleep and can awaken up to six times a night. Both of them are in constant pain. They must have been in hospital about 30 times, and have both nearly died on occasions.
‘The medical profession will not admit that the vaccine has done this, but I constantly ask myself why I allowed my boys to have those jab.’
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