By Clodagh Sheehy
A MOTHER whose 13-year-old daughter got sick within hours of receiving the HPV vaccination against cervical cancer, has accused the HSE of “disgraceful dishonesty”.
Elaine Sammon, of Calverstown, Kilcullen, Co Kildare, says she is now “deeply distrustful” of the authority whose “lack of transparency and honesty has left me feeling very angry”.
Elaine’s daughter was given the vaccine last month and within an hour she rang home telling her mother she felt “dizzy, nauseous, had a pounding headache and that her legs weren’t working properly.
“I got a terrible fright as I was unprepared for any such reactions,” says Elaine.
The concerned mother later found out that her daughter and “about 25pc” of the others who got the vaccine were sent home from school.
“I asked whether I should bring her to the doctor but was told by a nurse not to worry that this reaction was standard.
“My daughter went to bed and recovered though did complain of aches over the following days. However a friend’s headache continued for three days and a rash developed which spread from her legs up over her torso.”
[Note from SaneVax: Twenty-five percent of the students had to be sent home after vaccination with Gardasil. When will events like this start to raise a ‘red flag’ with health authorities? One can only hope it will be soon.]
My daughter came home early from school the day Gardasil was administered. Why? Because hockey practice could not go ahead as planned. Why? Her words: ‘The vaccine.’ When I pressed further, she said ‘Because the girls who got the vaccine couldn’t lift their arms.’ She said most of them were complaining of pain in arms and inability to move them upwards beyond a certain point. Why this would happen in the normal course of an injection I do not know. What she described in the aftermath of the vaccines when girls returned to class was disturbing – some had been very faint, and felt sick. She was really upset about one girl who she said was bright red and looked delirious, and then was deathly pale. It was really disturbing to hear first-hand what I had known anecdotally. She herself was quite stressed from having witnessed it and concerned for her friends. I have to say, I worry about the second dose and think I will keep her from school that day.
We’re to believe this is normal? That these reactions are psychogenic? No, I don’t accept it. There was no drama from what I heard – just adverse reactions that will no doubt go unheeded.