Vaccinations Risks: Mother may sue over triple jab
Mother may sue over triple jab
Jul 10 2004
Source: Birmingham Post
A mother is considering legal action after her three-year-old son was given an MMR jab without her approval.
Sheila Webster, who paid to have single vaccinations for her son Michael Whitfield because of the controversy surrounding the MMR, was horrified when told he had been given the jab at Kidsgrove Medical Centre, Staffordshire.
Mrs Webster took Michael in to be given the vaccination for diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough and polio drops, and signed the consent form after checking the details with a nurse.
She only found out he had received the pre-school booster - which protects against measles, mumps and rubella - when she was leaving as the nurse told her how to combat high temperatures caused by the triple jab.
Concern has been voiced about the MMR jab's potential links to autism and bowel cancer.
Mrs Webster, a 39-year-old sales manager from Trentham, said she chose to pay privately for the measles and rubella jabs, costing £75 each, and had been told to wait until he is seven for the mumps jab.
"I would never have agreed for her to do this," she said.
"When he had the meningitis vaccine he ended up in hospital for three days with all the symptoms like the rash and I thought if he can react like this to a single dose vaccine, there's no way I'm letting him have the triple dose MMR.
"They have given him seven different components in one go and I would never have allowed that."
Mrs Webster said she had sent a formal complaint letter to the surgery.
A statement from the Medical Protection Society, on behalf of the medical centre, stated: "Kidsgrove Medical Centre deeply regret this error and the distress that it has caused to Michael Whitfield and his family.
"Kidsgrove Medical Centre would like to extend their sincere apologies to Michael and his family.
"The medical centre is conducting an internal inquiry into this incident and will do everything they can to ensure this does not happen again."