A Tale of Two Children

[BellyBelly]

You'll probably remember not long ago the case in NSW where DOCS were chasing that family to vaccinate their baby for Hep B? It's not an isolated case.

A Tale of Two Children

Is the case in NSW an isolated incident? We at the AVN don't believe that it is and since the first family made contact with us, we have spoken with and are trying to help another family in QLD.

Brenton and his wife Suzanne* have 2 older children who were fully vaccinated. They never questioned vaccination. When their youngest child, a son, was born 9 weeks premature, he was still given a Hep B shot at birth and immediately became ill. For the next few weeks, he was continually at the doctor's office, the ambulance station which was right across the street from where this family lived and the hospital.

At about 5 weeks of age, this premmie baby suffered a massive seizure. He had just been seen by the paramedics at the ambulance station that morning and when his seizure started, his family took him straight to hospital. The head of the Scan Team 'examined' this child and declared that he had been shaken. Sean and his wife were reported to DoCS. While their son, who became blind and developed cerebral palsy as a result of his reaction - was clinging to life in the hospital, police showed up and took all of this couple's children away from them and charged them with 2 counts of grievous bodily harm.

This case has been in the courts for 2 1/2 years. At first, the children were in foster care, but when they started to show up with unexplained burns and bruises, Suzanne's mother sued for and won custody. Brenton and his wife have been able to visit the children but they are not allowed to be alone with them.

Suzanne's mother mortgaged her home and Brenton and Suzanne had to give up their business in order to be available for court. They have so far spent $107,000 on their defence and are flat broke at this point in time.

During their ordeal with DoCS, their local MP who they approached for help showed them great sympathy and tried to do what he could to help. He told Brenton that DoCS is a law unto itself.

In his court case, DoCS was required to get a doctor to write a report on this baby. Dr Archie Kalokerinos was that doctor. He has long been known as an advocate for free vaccination choice. Archie's report stated that the child was injured by the Hep B vaccine and that he was suffering from scurvy (caused by vaccination) at the time of his worst symptoms - a diagnosis that was actually included in the hospital record though the doctors were not happy that the parents had seen this and may have removed it - I am not sure on this point.

When Archie's information was presented, DoCS discounted it by saying that Archie was just a GP and an old geriatric whose opinion didn't count. So much for their claims of having to go with medical opinion! It seems they only have to go with opinion when it agrees with them!

Anyway, the head of scan team who initially made the accusation and got this family charged with GBH, stated that the baby had multiple fractures and broken ribs. It was only upon cross-examination that it was discovered that no x-rays had ever been taken of this baby so the accusations of fractures had no basis in fact.

Last week, Brenton's case was finally finished and he and his wife, totally broke and devastated after 2 1/2 years without their kids, were exonerated. Thinking that their troubles were over and they could just get their family back together and try to go on, they asked to get custody of their children.

DoCS however had other ideas. They wanted to give this already Hep B vaccine damaged child another Hep B vaccine. Of course, the parents are refusing because they are afraid that another shot will kill this poor child. DOCS has said that this refusal constitutes a 'failure to provide the necessities of life' and they are threatening to take the children off of the grandmother and get them adopted out.

This family is totally broke and their lawyer who has represented them over this period of time says that he can't do any more at this point and anything he could do would cost an additional $8,000. The AVN has found another solicitor to help Brenton's family and this case, if won, will set a fantastic precedent in the state of QLD which all of us will benefit from - not just Brenton and his family. It will however, cost tens of thousands of dollars to run - dollars which neither Brenton nor the AVN has at the present time.

Please click on the links either above or below and donate to our legal 'Fighting Fund' and consider giving a small additional amount to the AVN to help us continue the very important work we are doing to protect all Australians from forced vaccination.

*names have been changed

[Trillian]

You know what really gets me angry about all this? DoCs only ever seems to *work* properly when they are chasing the wrong people.

[River]

I'd love to read the balanced report of this story to be honest. Do you have any further information on it Kelly? Which isn't a propaganda/fund raising exercise by the AVN? Love it how this report states on how the child was ill from birth because of the vac, and the seizures were because of it, whereas in reality, a 9 week prem baby would in my mind stand a good chance of that being as a result of the prematurity not any external influence.

There must have been some reason that the hospital staff were worried for the baby's safety. I am absolutely certain that DoCS do have the childs best interest in mind, and given how much slips through the cracks, this must have been a pretty severe case of suspected abuse for them to remove the children.

Hard to know where the truth lies really. Of course the parents aren't going to agree to claims of abuse, and the AVN is going to go foaming at the mouth rabid for any case involving immunisations (and a way to give negative light to it), and DoCS are going to stand by their decisions to protect the child, and the hospital staff aren't going to say 'whoops, we missed that diagnosis' (which I'm sure wouldn't be for some conspiracal reason to propagate vaccinations lol). So there is so much grey, it's hard to find the truth really.

As I said I'd love to read more information from all sides on this one!

[Lulu]

I've been following the updates on this case, it has been going on for years.

River WHO is going to give the other side anyway? Don't you think the facts as stated here are not enough to judge by?

Docs? Pfft.

[BellyBelly]

Um, the children were in foster care when they suffered abuse... and the AMA etc DOESNT spread propaganda? You're very one sided yourself there.

[Lulu]

Anyway, the head of scan team who initially made the accusation and got this family charged with GBH, stated that the baby had multiple fractures and broken ribs. It was only upon cross-examination that it was discovered that no x-rays had ever been taken of this baby so the accusations of fractures had no basis in fact.

There you go! Thats the 'other side'.

[River]

Just quickly because I'm running out.......Lucy, if you've been following it, could you email me some info?

I was talking about the original abuse where they said the baby was shaken. Sad that the foster system has abusers in it, but that's not what I was talking about.

Actually, google vaccination and it's mainly anti-vac sites. I was just wanting some further info on the case as a whole.

I'm not one sided, I like fairness. K hasn't had the MMR, I do this out of an informed choice, I just hate propaganda no matter which way it goes.

[briggsy's girl]

this really bugs me - these parents have been CLEARED, after 2.5 years, of abusing the child. DoCS are now saying that if they don't vaccinate their child, they will not have it returned.

what happened to the parents right to choose??? irrespective of what FACTS might be publicly available, obviously a LOT of information has been provided to the courts that cleared the parents, and now they're trying to force medical treatment that the parents deem to be potentially harmful onto their child! yes, vaccines might work, but this child had complications FOLLOWING an immunisation. whether there was a direct link to that immunisation, or whether it was related to the child being premature, the parents believe it was linked, and have EVERY RIGHT to sign a bloody conscientious objection form so that their child is not immunised

i can't believe how much DoCS are fixating on this case given the parents have been EXONERATED !! yeah, it's fundraising - and if i could afford to, i'd help. NO ONE should be FORCED to immunise their child - screw DoCS - they need to go and focus on the cases that ARE slipping through the cracks, and BACK OFF on immunisation! it's a choice, simple.



i would like to add - i have NOT made a decision as to whether our children will be immunised - but I don't believe ANY parent should be forced to do something that they are obviously very uncomfortable with.

[mountain mummy]

Originally Posted by River

I am absolutely certain that DoCS do have the childs best interest in mind, and given how much slips through the cracks, this must have been a pretty severe case of suspected abuse for them to remove the children.

...and DoCS are going to stand by their decisions to protect the child...

I know it's a little different, but when I was a teenager (17 years old in fact), I left home (for various reasons) and my aunties and uncles immediately reported my mother to DoCS for child abuse (I still had a little brother at home) ... they said she was a witch and into black magic and that she spent all of her money on supplies for this practice and deprived her children of the basic necessities (such as food) Back in those days, the single parent pension wasn't a lot and she did have a mortgage and a car loan to repay, but she never deprived us of food, shelter or love!

BUT because my psycho relo's signed stat decs (and even had me sign stuff that I didn't even know what it was!) DoCS were able to drop into my mother's house unexpectedly to check up on her, they were able to visit my brother at school without my mother's knowledge and when my relo's KIDNAPPED my brother, DoCS even started assisting them with a custody battle against my mother!

SO DoCS DO NOT always have the child's best interest at heart because, in my case, they were willing to believe my relo's UNFOUNDED allegations and didn't even care to hear my mum's side of the case. She ended up having to sell her house and car and it very nearly ruined her psychologically and emotionally ... DoCS are always willing to believe the worst about a person, IMO.

I apologise if I sound one-sided, but having been through DoCS's rigmarole personally, I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them. And my reasons, although personal, for leaving home had absolutely NOTHING to do with abuse or neglect.

ETA: I choose not to vaccinate ... will they be after me next??

[finsmum]

Hey, Kelly, thanks for putting this up.
This story is appalling!
There are so many features of this that disturb me - I hadn't heard of this case before, but I have worked for Child Protection Victoria (the Vic version of DOCS) and I do know that while there are ace people trying to do the right thing, it is a very flawed system. Workers are underpaid, hugely under stress and pressure, (the average length of employment when I worked there was 7 - 9 months) and supervisors and managers can make decisions based on 'arse - covering' rather than understanding of the family.
I've seen some mistakes. I stopped working there. And yes, abuse in sub - optimal foster care is common. There was a term when I worked there; 'system abuse'. This family seems to have suffered an extreme example of this.

As for vaccination ... I have a 2 month old daughter, who is the world to me, and after much research my partner and I have decided that none of the vaccinations, to us, are worth the risk. I have a decent understanding of this, as, beleive it or not, I also worked as a lab technician in a vaccine laboratory for 3 years!
We approach keeping her healthy by breastfeeding, using attachment parenting approaches, she'll never be in childcare, and we live in a low population area. We also use Chinese herbal medecine and a range of alternatives. The very idea that we may not be allowed to make these choices is deeply, deeply offensive.

The Hep B vaccine is a particularly nasty example. Hep B is like AIDS - unless your baby is having unprotected sex or using drugs (!!!), or the mother has active Hep B, it's NOT a risk. The vaccine is. All the midwives, maternal health nurses and even doctors I've seen have agreed that this is a dodgy one - even pro-vaccination health experts. It's a 'lowest common denominator' one, designed to catch those few irresponsible folk who don't take sensible precautions. The very idea that DOCS would suggest that it is irresponsible of these parents to refuse a second time, after a life threatening reaction, is so upsetting!

The point here is that these parents were exonerated, they and thier children have been through enough.

Every parent should get informed on vaccination, just like any other invasive medical procedure, before consenting to having this intervention. There is no doubt that in some circumstances vaccination is probably less risky than not vaccinating (particularly in child care situations), but the coice must, in any thinking society always be the parent's to make.

[LimeSlice]

is there an update to this anywhere?