Guilt of mum whose son nearly died of measles after she refused MMR – Daily Mail

As she watched her teenage son being wheeled into an ambulance, before being blue-lighted to hospital, Rebecca Evans felt a terrifying sense of helplessness. And she felt a stomach-churning guilt too. For the reason her precious boy was in this life-threatening state related directly to a decision she herself had made.

When Rebecca was invited to give Louis the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine at the age of one, she thought she was doing the right thing by declining it. At that point the jab was tainted by claims, later wholly disproved, linking it to the developmental disability autism.

Yet it was a decision with almost catastrophic results, causing Louis to catch measles 16 years later and suffer such severe respiratory problems he had to be resuscitated by paramedics. He would spend a week in isolation in hospital with a serious infection and dangerously high temperature, and for years afterwards, would resent his mother for not giving him the shot.

It was a terrible time, says Rebecca, 55, as she describes that panicked dash to the hospital. I feared I might lose him. Its the worst imaginable thought for any mother and I had to force myself to stop it and focus on supporting my son, who was also terrified. I feel quite emotional recalling it now.

I remember a consultant at the hospital asking why I hadnt had him vaccinated and when I told him about my fears that Louis might develop autism, he looked up at the ceiling, in despair, and said: I must have heard this a hundred times. It was, of course, too late by then. I apologised for not realising how serious measles could be, and for putting other, more vulnerable, people at risk by not having him inoculated.

In the most serious cases, measles can cause complications including meningitis, seizures and even blindness and encephalitis swelling of the brain

Louis is now 26 and Rebecca has decided to speak out because the UK is in the grip of a measles emergency, with outbreaks in London, Birmingham and Yorkshire leading the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), which replaced Public Health England during the pandemic, to declare a national incident.

Since October 2023, there have been 347 laboratory confirmed measles cases reported in England, with 127 of these recorded in January.

Public health officials fear that we have now lost herd immunity to the disease with only

85 per cent of children in the UK vaccinated against it compared to the 95 per cent needed and that urgent action is required to prevent the worlds most contagious virus spreading like proverbial wildfire.

The outbreak appears to be the result of a perfect storm: a fall in the number of children given jabs during the pandemic and those unvaccinated children now mixing with young adults whose parents opted not to let them have it during the late 1990s and early noughties, at the height of the MMR scare.

The outbreak is especially dispiriting, given that, in 2017, the World Health Organization declared the disease had been eliminated for the first time in the UK, since no indigenous cases of measles had been recorded for three years.

Foolish though Rebecca admits she was to leave her son unprotected from the threat of measles not to mention rubella, which carries similar risks, and mumps, which can cause infertility in men she was far from the only middle-class mum to opt out of giving her child the triple jab during those years.

The controversy began in February 1998 with the publication of a paper in the highly respected medical journal The Lancet by Andrew Wakefield, at the time a gastroenterologist at the Royal Free Hospital in North London, claiming a link between the MMR vaccine, gut problems in children and autism.

In 2010, the Lancet retracted Wakefields paper which featured case studies of just 12 children, so fell way short of being based on any kind of robust clinical trials on the grounds that elements appeared to be false. He was then struck off the medical register.

However, to the frustration of medics, the seeds of fear had been sown and many children went unvaccinated, unless their parents paid for the jabs to be given separately, which was the only other option.

While most are now well aware that the suggested link with autism was entirely bogus, Helen Bedford, a professor of childrens health at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, has said those not vaccinated due to the scare together with children who missed out on jabs during the pandemic may be helping the virus to spread.

Over the years, the number of unvaccinated people has accumulated in the population, enabling measles to take hold and spread quickly within communities, warns Professor Bedford.

For Rebecca, the choice seemed stark. A single mum, whose ex supported Louis financially, including paying for him to attend a prestigious private school in West London, she had read Wakefields paper when the letter arrived in 1998 asking her to take her one-year-old to his GP for an MMR shot.

Autism is, of course, on a spectrum but it can be serious, so I declined the invitation, recalls Rebecca. My GP kept asking if I was sure. She didnt tell me I was a bad mother for refusing, but she did say: I really hope you dont live to regret this decision. Which, of course, I did.

Rebecca has always taken an alternative approach to healthcare, but she was not anti-vaccines. Conscious that babies are vulnerable to disease, she ensured her son had all other infant vaccines, including diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and hepatitis B (and they both had all the Covid jabs offered to them in recent years).

Yet, when it came to MMR, she felt a sense of deep unease. At the back of her mind Rebecca felt her son had been a little slower to talk than his peers something her GP put down to him being bilingual and it was this, in part, which made her decide any risk associated with the MMR vaccine was not worth taking.

She was unaware her son could have been given the inoculations individually had she paid to have it done privately a route some middle-class parents took at the time.

But, in any case, she believed the diseases MMR protects against were not too serious and was largely unconcerned about his risk of contracting them. This, it turned out, was a big mistake.

It was just before the October half-term in 2014 that sixth-former Louis, then 17, woke one morning complaining of a sore throat and very achy joints, which made it difficult for him to move. His torso was covered in red spots.

Concerned, but never imagining it was measles, Rebecca took him to see their GP, who diagnosed some sort of viral infection, and prescribed paracetamol and rest.

It is perhaps not surprising that this GP did not recognise measles given its rarity back then, it was simply not on the radar for most.

When, the following day, there were more spots and Louis was worryingly lethargic, with a temperature so high you could have fried an egg on his forehead, Rebecca took him back to the surgery.

This time I saw a different GP, who called in a colleague, and together they stood looking at my son, checking his temperature, recalls Rebecca. Then one said: This is quite an advanced case of measles and extremely serious. We must call an ambulance.

I felt sick with worry and shock I had no idea measles could be so debilitating. The doctors asked if my son had come into contact with any elderly people, or pregnant women, over the past three days because, if so, they would need to be informed as measles could be very dangerous for them.

Hed gone on the bus, to and from his sixth-form college, which is probably where hed picked it up, as we knew of no one else with measles, so had come into contact with lots of people we didnt know.

I was so freaked out thinking my son could have infected someone at high risk I said: I feel terrible. What can I do?.

Their response was that theyd be keeping him in the surgery until the ambulance arrived, to avoid any further risk of infection.

Rebeccas dogs were in her car, so she had to drop them home, leaving Louis to make the journey to Londons St Thomas hospital alone with the paramedics.

Terrifyingly, en route, he developed such severe breathing problems he went into respiratory arrest and the ambulance crew had to pull over to resuscitate him.

When an already anxious Rebecca arrived at St Thomas, she was horrified to learn that her son was so unwell he was being treated in the accident and emergency departments resuscitation area and she was not able to see him.

It was horrendous. I remember a doctor looking me in the eye and saying: This is extremely serious, recalls Rebecca, shaken by the memory.

And, of course, each time I told a different medic that he had not had the MMR I tormented myself with the thought that it was all my fault and could have been prevented. Mercifully, my son pulled round and, the following day, they were able to move him on to a side ward, where I could visit.

Alarming though it undoubtedly was, Louiss condition could, in fact, have been much worse. As many as one in 20 children with measles gets pneumonia, the most common cause of death from the disease in the young.

In the most serious cases, the measles virus can cause other complications too, including meningitis and seizures and, although rare, even blindness and encephalitis swelling of the brain which can lead to permanent brain damage. It is also highly risky for pregnant women, potentially leading to miscarriage, stillbirth and premature births.

Louis spent a week in a sealed room being given a cocktail of medicines. Rebecca doesnt recall what they were it was all a bit of a blur, she says but believes they included paracetamol to control his temperature, antibiotics, for the ear and chest infections which can be a complication of measles, and steroids to ease his respiratory issues.

Since October 2023, there have been 347 laboratory confirmed measles cases reported in England, with 127 of these recorded in January

So infectious is the disease that anyone who entered his quarantined space, including Rebecca, had to remove their clothes and replace them with protective plastic suits, hats, socks and gloves, which then had to be thrown away before leaving.

Luckily, Louis, who was discharged after eight days, has suffered no long-term physical effects. However, as a teenage boy, he was embarrassed about having such a highly infections virus, which meant he didnt broadcast news of his hospital stay once back at college, following the half-term break.

Their GP had informed the college there had been a case of measles, without giving Louiss name, so that anyone he may have come into contact with could be vigilant about checking for symptoms and seeing a doctor, if necessary.

One can only imagine how mortifying it must have been for Louis, seeing posters on the college walls, warning of the risk of infection and knowing he was the source.

Indeed, a few years later, in his early 20s, Louis made his feelings about his mothers rejection of the MMR, and the frightening consequences of that decision for him, very clear.

I hadnt realised how much he resented it, says Rebecca. But we were talking about something, I dont recall what, and he got angry and said: Your beliefs almost killed me. I spent a week in hospital and could have died.

It hurt hearing that. I told him I hoped that one day he would be a parent and understand that we only do what we think is best for our children.

If another mum had told me: I almost lost my son to measles. Be careful, of course I may have done things differently. But, at the time, I believed I was doing what was right.

Rebecca says she fell for Wakefields claims hook, line and sinker. She is not proud to admit that she even persuaded a friend with a child the same age as Louis to decline the MMR.

How, I wonder, does she feel about Andrew Wakefield now?

Of course, we now know that his report was complete nonsense, she says. Maybe he was negligent, or stubborn, but was he malicious? Im not sure. He may have thought that he was on to something but, unfortunately for parents like me, who paid a price, he was completely wrong.

If she could turn back the clock, Rebecca would certainly take her GPs advice and let her son have the jab, sparing him the trauma of measles.

Im hearing news reports about more people becoming infected every day and find it quite traumatic as they bring memories of that terrible time flooding back, says Rebecca.

In talking about my experience with my son, I hope I can persuade other parents to get their children vaccinated, whatever age they are now, because its never too late.

Please learn from our awful experience, she begs, before this measles outbreak becomes an epidemic.

Names have been changed.

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Guilt of mum whose son nearly died of measles after she refused MMR - Daily Mail