Anti-vaxxers are having a moment nowadays. RFK just dismantled decades-long successful childhood vaccine schedules in the U.S. and the UK lost its status as a measles-free country, but the anti-vaccine movement doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop any time soon.

Healthcare workers are at the frontlines of dealing with vaccine skeptics. In fact, 55% of healthcare professionals reported that it was becoming difficult to meet with patients because of the COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. In another study, workers said that 21% of patients accept all vaccines but are hesitant, and 7.2% refuse all vaccines.

Being a doctor in this climate is like juggling burning tennis balls: they try to inform and educate without insulting or demeaning. However, the things they have heard and seen from patients could fill several books. Bored Panda came across a thread online where medical workers were sharing the craziest things they experienced with anti-vax patients, and we present the wildest encounters below!

#1

Friend of mine is a military OBGYN. Was at a OB appointment with the pregnant dependent and servicemember. He had just returned from AFG a few months prior.
OB mentions about follow-ups after delivery in 1st year of life, including vaccines.
Wife says: “I read on the internet that vaccines cause autism, I don’t think we’re going to do that”
Husband says: “I saw a lot of little graves in Afghanistan, sure as hell we are getting our kid vaccinated”.

#2

Obligatory not me but…
My favorite story along these lines involved a student doctor encountering an anti-vaxx parent with an infant while doing a supervised consultation, with a Professor of medicine present. It’s a bit ethically dubious, but the ends justify the means here IMO.
The Professor basically took over and said
“Did you know that the anti-vaccination movement is a Chinese and Russian plot to weaken American health?”
The parent agreed to a modified vaccine schedule.

#3

When I was a med student, I had a parent who wanted to do a ‘delayed vaccination schedule’. Basically it means that you get all the same vaccinations but you pointlessly and foolishly do it over a longer time period. The mom had read a book promoting this practice that was unfortunately written by an MD. My pediatric attending had zero chill: “Is that the book written by Dr ___? Yes? Well, then you should know that I was in the same medical school class as Dr ___ but I got much better scores than he did.”.

#4

I’ve had several patients who didn’t vaccinate any of their kids. While many practices turn these people away, I consider it an opportunity to respect their wishes and gain their trust, but on every visit I ask them to compare data and have an open conversation about what they know. I do this in as non-confrontational and as genuine and helpful a way as possible. I’ve converted a number of anti-vaxxers in this way, while turning them away likely would never have resulted in the same outcome.

#5

I was a medical student when this happened. My attending pediatrician gave me a heads up about the parent I was about to see and decided it would be best if he came into the room with me.
Four year old kid came in with a horrible cough and difficulty breathing. It was almost sure as hell Pertussis aka whooping cough. The kid was coughing so bad he vomited on the exam table. . He went on to ask about vaccinating her kid and of course she replied no even though her son was near coughing up his lung right next to her. I think my attending had seen enough and had enough of her not vaccinating her kid and had the following conversation with the kids mom
Attending: Mrs. ____ I have to ask you. Do you trust me with as your sons doctor?
Mom: Of course I do Dr. ____
Attending: Well, there’s two problems here that we need to address. One, you either think you are more knowledgeable than me when it comes to medicine, and if that’s the case I should no longer be your sons doctor. Or you don’t trust me as a physician and in that case I shouldn’t be your sons doctor.
Mom: *blank stare on face*
Attending: will you please reconsider giving your son a vaccine?
Mom: No
My attending obviously treated her kid, but after this whole ordeal resolved he fired her and her son as a patient and referred them to another pediatrician. He had enough of her. I respected the hell out of him after he pulled this move.

#6

I’m a doc and two months ago I’m walking out of the hospital and besides me is a woman, frantically dialing a number on her telephone.
She proceeds to start yelling into her phone:
“They want to put all those nasty chemicals into him! They say if he’s going to be in the hospital he needs to be vaccinated to protect other kids! It’s poison! I’m going to take him somewhere else!!!”
When we got to the side walk she immediately reached into her purse and pulled out a cigarette and started smoking.
I just stood there watching her yell about poisonous chemicals in vaccines while she puffed furiously on a cigarette.
You honestly can’t make this stuff up.

#7

I was the kid without the vaccines. Mother is an anti vaxxer and I started a job as a dental assistant at 19. Standard procedure to have the hepatitis b vaccine when starting that job. Went and got it at the doctors and the doctor was blown away that this was my first ever vaccine. He very kindly and non judgementally talked to me about getting all of the others, which I did. When administering them they had to call the people that make the vaccines to see if my age meant they had to do anything different. My kids are vaccinated on schedule, and I’m really grateful to that doctor.

#8

Had a kid come in for generic upper respiratory virus. Asked mom if he was vaccinated, as is routine. She said no. When I asked why not, her response was “Well my boyfriend was vaccinated and he still got meningitis, so they don’t even work”
I told her that’s the same as saying your friend got bruised by a seat belt in a car accident, so you don’t wear them when you drive.

#9

I was never vaccinated as a child and I remember the first time I went to the doctor (I was 18), she almost didn’t believe me when I had told her I’d never been vaccinated. I got chicken pox when I was 20 and the doctor just kept asking “are you SURE you weren’t vaccinated???” yes, crazy people do exist (my mom).

#10

I once spoke to someone that was anti vax and also had a dog. I asked if they got their dog it’s shots at the vet. Their response was, “of course. I don’t want him to have rabies or worms!”.

#11

We had a 14 year old female come in for abdominal pain one time. She weighed 80 pounds. Looked sickly. Her mother refused to let her eat anything but a handful of things, nothing with very much protein at all. She literally had a binder full of articles about how horrible vaccines are, all the bad things they put in food these days, etc. She had completely brain washed this kid so the kid believed it too. Her labs showed malnutrition, her teeth were horrible. Just a sad case all around.

#12

I had a mother bring her child to see me as a new patient. When I saw that he wasn’t vaccinated I asked my nurse why not and she told me that the mother had a “religious exemption.” When I entered the room, I asked the mom what the religious exemption was and she said “oh, well when he was a baby he had a rash from the hepatitis B vaccine.” I kindly told her that I couldn’t care for her child because he was not only a risk to my staff, myself but also to other patients in my office. She went off on me and ranted about “how she can not believe that every doctor’s office that she calls refuses to treat her son because he isn’t vaccinated.” And that “the only doctor in the county that will see him can’t see him for almost 2 months.” I kindly stopped her and said “if I was one of a few that refused to treat your child, i would understand your frustration. But don’t you think there’s a message that not a single doctor in the entire county (save for ONE doctor who did some really questionable practices, think essential oils and stuff) will treat your kid? That maybe there’s a valid reason behind it?
Yeah, she definitely wasn’t happy and left.

#13

I’m not a medical doctor but a mental health therapist, went to do a new client intake and while asking the mother about the kid’s medical history, vaccination records etc she said he was not vaccinated because vaccines cause autism and she didn’t want to risk her son getting it, then when I went to meet the kid within 5 seconds of laying eyes on him I could tell… he was autistic. Worst part was that when I told her she became very upset and started yelling at her husband saying he must have gotten the kid secretly vaccinated and then immediately ran out the house and took the kid to the emergency room for “testing” and just left me and the dad in the living room just kind of staring at eachother. Never answered my calls or texts again after that and I had to get DCF involved.

#14

Child A had an absolutely horrible time with chicken pox; to the point that I thought he might not make it.
So what does she do? Intentionally expose Child B to it.

#15

One of my friends is a doctor.
At his practice, if you choose not to vaccinate he will show you the pamphlets about vaccines. If there is no medical reason to not vaccinate, he will not keep you as a patient.
He basically tells them he won’t allow people to put his other patients at risk by not vaccinating.

#16

Not me, but my father is a pediatrician in California, where you can’t send your child to school if they’re not vaccinated. During a physical, my father asked the mother of two children when the last time the children got vaccinated. She answers ,” I don’t believe in vaccination. It causes autism.” She then proceeded to ask him to forge the vaccination records. Long story short, he presented the facts declaring her claim to be a myth, she cursed him out, and then he responds with “ ma’am, you’re an idiot. Now get out of my office.” The family moved to Nevada so the children could go to school unvaccinated.

#17

Surprisingly the only time it was an issue was when I was a medical student, an Anti-vaxx mother refused the Vitamin K injection for her newborn due to anti vaxx propaganda.
Newborn had an intracerebral haemorrhage and is now a vegetable for life. Completely avoidable if the mother had accepted the Vit K injection.
Worst part for me was she didnt accept that it was preventable and still firmly believes she made the right call by refusing the Vit K.

#18

I had a kid come in that was super sick. 3 years old and in septic shock. He had the flu and another compounded viral infection (or maybe pertussis). Heart rate was close to 200, respiratory rate in the 50s, blood pressure in the 70s. Kid was so dry that we could barely get IVs into him and I almost had to drill an IO. We dumped a ton of fluids into him, started him on vasopressors and transferred him to the local children’s hospital.
I had asked the mom if he was vaccinated and she said “No, vaccines have really bad side effects! They’ll make you sick.” I explained to her that NOT getting the vaccines had made her kid 10 times sicker than he ever would have been from any mild vaccine reaction. She told me I was a moron and that I obviously have no clue what I’m talking and that’s the reason her kid was getting transferred…. She also told me that recommending she vaccinate her kids was racist.
Edit: Didn’t expect this to blow up so some clarifications and answers to common questions:
– CPS was called and, once again, I was told there would be no investigation. This is their usual response.
– RN and NP student, not an MD.
– I didn’t follow up with the other hospital about how the kid did. I try not to follow up on patients to keep things compartmentalized.

#19

In medical school I saw a kiddo whose parents refused vaccines and so when they were given the vaccine refusal form to sign. This form essentially said that the parents understood that refusing vaccines was against medical advice, that their kiddo could get sick from all those preventable diseases, and that the they wouldn’t hold the doctor/practice liable for any complications that the kiddo may get from said preventable diseases. This mom pulled out a sharpie and blacked out the part about the doctor not being held liable. The parents thought that we’d be cool with them just changing that form just for them and they wanted the doctor to be held liable for their moronic choice. Of course this didn’t work and they were told to sign the form or they would be discharged from the practice and have to find another. They refused to sign and were told to leave after given a list of other pediatricians in the area.

#20

Not a doctor, but a nurse and a vaccine advocate. Once had a public argument with a friend from long ago. He argued that by not vaccinating his kids and risking “terrible side effects and possible autism,” he was placing no one else at risk, however acknowledged the potential risk to his kids. After attempting to explain the potential risk to others and him failing to understand, I created an analogy which I still use to this day….
Imagine if my kids and your kids get into the same car… Both of your kids don’t put on seat belts. Therefore, if there is an accident, there is an increased risk that your kids will meet their demise and also harm my children in the process.
This seemed to click with him and he doesn’t share his anti-vac propaganda on social media anymore.

#21

Ok ok I am not a doctor BUT I’m pregnant so I see one pretty regularly right now lol it was time for my TDAP booster and I was asking about the MMR booster. My OB asked if we are planning to vaccinate the baby, and I told him that shouldn’t even be a question he feels he needs ask any of his patients. So he told me this story about a teenage patient who came in with her mom. The mom was going on and on about how she teaches her child to live a healthy and holistic lifestyle free of medicine, vaccines, and chemicals. Well turned out the daughter had gotten gonorrhea from her boyfriend despite her healthy and holistic lifestyle. My OB said he felt great seeing the mother’s face when he delivered the news lol.

#22

After I sent out invites to my kids birthday party, I found out one of her friends from dance was unvaccinated. My daughters best friend is in remission from leukemia and is immunocompromised. I uninvited the dance kid and very nicely explained the situation. Her mother loses it and tries to get us kicked out of the dance school they attend. The dance school owner is an older lady and had no idea there were idiots these days that didn’t vax so she implemented a new rule that students had to be up to date and the unvaxxed kid had to find a new dance school. I felt bad for the kid but her mother is a sociopath. Herd immunity saves lives when it comes to kids fighting cancer.

#23

While discussing vaccines with a mom one time and bringing up my experience working with the immunocompromised population, she said “I don’t care if someone else’s kid has cancer. That’s their problem, not mine.” And that right there is a huge part of the problem: selfishness. I vaccinate my children not only for their own health, but for the health of others.

#24

Had a patient come to the hospital for possible heart attack. I asked if they had gotten a flu shot or the pneumonia vaccine. They went into a long rant about how vaccines are poison and they don’t take any medication because they swim in the ocean and it purifies all the toxins that they aquire. Then they started having chest pain so I gave them a nitroglycerin pill… They spat it out because they hated it. Well… You don’t take your meds for high blood pressure and high cholesterol you will have a heart attack. So not just antivax, but fully anti medicine and science.
Edit: yes, the pneumonia vaccine is a thing. Technically called the Pneumococcal vaccines which protects from the bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae. Their use can prevent some cases of pneumonia, meningitis, and sepsis. The hospital asks everyone over 65 if they have had one. Also, this person did leave AMA the next morning. And yes, nitroglycerin is an explosive, but smaller and less concentrated is a vasodilator that helps with chest pain related to heart blockages.

#25

Not a doctor nor do I work in a human hospital, but I do work in a veterinary hospital. I once asked my coworkers if there are people who are antivaxx with their pets, too, and they rolled their eyes and said yes and told me the story about a client who didn’t think it was necessary to have his dog’s vaccines updated yearly, he thought the vaccines were for only once in the dog’s life and then no more vaccines.

#26

I did. But the scenario was quite bad that I couldn’t get angry at the parents. Their 12 year old daughter presented with Diphtheria, which in my place doesn’t exist anymore thanks to National Immunization Schedule. Their explanation was simple, Vaccines make people infertile to stop population explosion. I couldn’t explain to them as they were saying God is Punishing their child for doing something wrong in her previous life. Thankfully, the Child could be saved.

#27

My SO grandma told us about when the polio vaccine arrived to Spain, one of her friends said it was a stupid thing to get vacinated. Grandma vacinated all her kids, and the friend didn”t. Her friend’s son got the polio (apparently he was one of the only children who got it on her town), but none of grandma’s got ill.

#28

There’s a community of anti vaxxers I interacted with many years ago. They live off the grid, most of the women were anemic or malnourished, overall very frail. It’s essentially a cult.
They all had very pale, somewhat grey, clammy skin. I don’t think they could whitstand catching any contagious disease. They still would not take any documents or information, yet tried to give me pamphlets about their phony utopia and savior.
I know some of these cults had to deal with measles outbreaks in the recent years, I wonder if that particular community did.

#29

Nearly qualified pharmacist here, so obligatory not a doctor… our pharmacy offers travel vaccines for people going away to countries with a high likelihood of severe tropical disease…
Star parenting goes to the parents who got themselves vaccinated for rabies, but not their two primary school age (elementary, for non brits) children…

#30

I work at a clinic that doesn’t treat kids (work-related illnesses and injuries) and I never really treated kids, so not many. One woman asked for my reassurance that she was doing the right not vaccinating her kids because other doctors haven’t been happy about that. I told her that she would have to meet with a hundred or more doctors to find one that agrees with her. She rolled her eyes and condescendingly said “I guess you’re all bought by big pharma then”. I called her an idiot and told her to go to another doctor next time.

#31

Not a doctor, but a story I heard stuck with me. The head of pediatrics from a Toronto Hospital (I forgot which one) was giving a talk and told a story about how, early in her practice, she had a little boy in for his scheduled vaccines, and was answering the nervous mother’s questions. The mother planned to go ahead with the vaccines, but had heard lots of anti-vax propaganda and so she was worried and had lots of questions. While they were talking, but before they administered the vaccines, the poor little kid suffered a grand mal seizure. It was really bad, the kid ended up getting admitted to the hospital, and suffered a fairly serious brain injury. It occurred to the paediatrician much later that if that seizure had hit 10 minutes later, or if the appointment had been 10 minutes earlier, nothing would have ever convinced that poor mother that it wasn’t the vaccine that caused the siezure.

#32

Here’s one:
Kid comes in after a fall and gets scraped by some rusty nails. Surprisingly is ok after the fall, we want to give the tetanus vaccine since that’s common to do after high risk exposure to make sure she doesn’t get it. Learn she’s never been vaccinated. Mom refuses. Call CPS but mom is connected to some big shot gov official. Kid goes home without vaccine.
Three weeks later, kid comes back in with tetanus unable to breathe. Suffers irreversible brain damage. Now she is wheel chair bound and needs to be fed through a tube.
EDIT: This was not in the US. I’d imagine CPS in the US wouldn’t care if you were connected to some high level government official and would’ve let us vaccinated.

#33

Veterinarian here. Had a client years ago who bred Salukis, and who fed raw, refused most medication cuz chemicals bad, and didn’t believe in vaccination.
One of her dogs was exposed to parvo, and she brought it back to the kennel. She tried to treat it homeopathically herself at first, so by the time we saw it, the dog was already pretty far gone.
Then the next day she brought in another sick dog.
Then another the next day.
Then another the next day.
Then another the next day.
Then another the next day.
Then another the next day.
Then another the next day.
Then another the next day.
Then another the next day.
Then another the next day.
Then another the next day.
All in all, after 6k in bills 12 beautiful dogs were gone from a disease she could have prevented for 120 dollars.

#34

19 year old comes on a gurney, deep coma, respiratory depression, foam issuing from the lips. Mother frantic. EEG reveals the pattern typical of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, a sequela of common measles.
It’s preventable, people. But not curable. They buried him a few weeks later.

#35

Many times. It often depends on the situation, if I have to do something to help the child that is unrelated to vaccines, I usually won’t say much because I need to maintain a working relationship to help the child. It’s also important to separate people who might be vaccine hesitant due to hearing or ready something, they are often willing to listen. True anti-vaxxers dont want to hear anything that contradicts them.
If I get an opportunity to talk to them more about vaccines I do so very carefully. Simply telling an anti-vaxxer the facts about vaccines doesnt work, so you have to move slow and ask them what their concerns are and try to answer them thoroughly.
99% of the time it doesnt work, so I fully document their refusal and then move on to the next patient. I just dont have time to sit and talk to someone for an hour about something they are ignorant about and are refusing to acknowledge.
The worst one recently was having to tell some parents that their 14 year old passed from meningitis. They had declined the vaccine at school 3 months earlier.

#36

Not a doctor. I worked as a receptionist in a pediatric clinic. Most people would ask if the kids reaaaaally needed all those vaccines. Like they felt they were too many and wanted to give them only “the important ones”.
For parents who completely refused vaccines, we had them sign official documentation that they were refusing so if/when the kid would get seriously sick or even pass away, we could prove that it was them and not us who made that decision.

#37

My mom works front desk at a hospital, and with the whole pandemic outbreak there was a Doctor on staff that was excessively ordering tests for every patient she saw which seemed so off because there is such a shortage of tests…
PLOT TWIST! Apparently the DOC is anti vaxx, resulting in her to order excessive testing because she was paranoid about returning home to her unvaccinated kids after a day at work.

#38

My children’s doctors will not see patients who are not up to schedule on the CDC recommended vaccines unless there is a medical reason.

#39

I’m a medical student but I have done rotations. One of the places I was at was the only city for three hours and the only substantial city for about four hours. It was kind of cool because all the doctors in this town banded together and decided that if you didn’t vaccinate you couldn’t be a patient at ANY of their offices, so the patient would have to drive hours to be seen.
Before school I worked in a lab and two of my antibacterial coworkers would argue constantly with me. One of them I could kind of see her logic-she believed that pharmaceutical companies weren’t honest or transparent about their data. She still vaccinated, but was essentially against big pharma. The other was a straight up idiot (“vaccines cause autism”) who tried to convince me not to get a hep B booster (if you work with blood, you definitely want that one).

#40

Obligatory not a doctor…lol…and posting this WAY late, but my brother is a doctor. he’s told me and my family that when he encounters patients like these, he sits them down and goes very in-depth as to the possible dangers of remaining anti-vaxx or raising their children anti-vaxx. he says that in a fair amount of cases, this works very well and they decide to go ahead with vaccinations. a lot of the cases he sees that involve anti-vaxxers are people who are just scared and misinformed.
however, there are the occasional patients who believe they’re right. some of these are helpless, and he definitely feels exasperated by them, but he’s got a job to do. as for some, the trick is done by naming and explaining many of the terrible diseases/consequences of remaining anti-vaxx, and sometimes there are success stories 🙂 i can only imagine how frustrating it would be, though. i definitely look up to him as i am seeking to enter the healthcare professions in the future as well.

#41

This is cross posted from r/nursing.
I work in a NICU and occasionally float out to the Term Nursery. Our Neonatologists also work as Pediatricians in the hospital and see the well-newborns on top of the NICU kids. The Neonatologist went to see a mom who was refusing the initial vaccines. When the doc told the mom the vaccines were recommended by the AAP and asked for reasons of refusal, the mom laughed and told her to “Do your research.”
Do you research….. She told this to a doctor. Who is both a Neonatologist and Pediatrician. Double board certified. She also is our Medical Director, has a PhD in Biochemical engineering, and is a mother herself.
My eyes nearly rolled out of my head.

#42

Ill tell a different kind of story. I am an ER doc and recently had this interaction with a patient:
Adult male comes in with fever, he comes back positive for the flu
Me: “you have the flu, I will write you for a prescription for tamiflu”
Patient: “doesnt that cause autism?”
This guy couldnt even remember that it was vaccines that reportedly cause autism, and he couldnt remember that it wasnt the flu vaccine, and of course he is wrong about vaccines causing autism, and he is a grown adult that thinks he will suddenly be autistic!

#43

I’m not a doctor, but an RN in public health. I recently had a mother call me to ask me if it was a smart idea for her child should get the MMR vaccine. Why was she asking this? She was worried that would make his autism worse.

#44

Not a doctor – several years ago during a bad flu outbreak hubby and I were visiting family members, chatting away. Hubby mentions that he had lost a second co-worker that month to complications from the flu. Grumpy in-law is bellowing about how flu isn’t real, they only want you to get shots to make money off of you, yada, yada, yada. Meanwhile the news blaring from the screen in front of them is talking about 3 local medical centers are overwhelmed with flu patients in the ICU, most of which were pregnant women.
Of course this is the same family member who firmly believes that the graduates of bible collage come away with a far greater education than medical doctors. She demanded to know when had any good come from Harvard medical? I said polio vaccine. She claims polio has never existed, its made up to get us to take poison. Uh, Auntie Vile? You were a teenager in the 50’s, there is no way you could be unaware of polio being real. Some people just want to be stupid.

#45

Not a doctor, but I work for a vaccine manufacturer, and my title is Raw Material Engineer (aka I work with vaccine ingredients for a living.) When an AVer asks me (on social media or in public) if I know what’s in a vaccine I basically cackle and crack my knuckles.
They also don’t seem to have an answer for why I give my children the same vaccines if Big Pharma is trying to poison people.
Edit: People keep asking to do an AMA and I think that’s a GREAT idea! I’ll make sure I do it very soon but I want to wait for a time when I have enough time to dedicate to Reddit.
And for those asking “what’s in them?” that’s a more complicated question. Depending on which vaccine (both the type and the brand) there are upwards of 100 different components that go in from start to finish.

#46

There was an anti-vax mom who brought her kid into the ER and demanded that her kid be roomed right away and seen first because he “couldn’t be around all these sick kids.”.

#47

I went to a school that is known for its nursing program, so we had a lot of student nurses and RNs who would come back from their internships and jobs with anti-vaxxer stories. The worst one by far was a student who met a mother, who also happened to be in nursing school, that explained that she would not be vaccinating any of her children, and was mad she had to get a tuberculosis vaccine to work in a hospital. The student spend about 30 minutes trying to explain to this mother that she could easily fatally hurt her kids, to which she told her: “At least they’ll pass naturally and not of mercury poisoning.”
Edit: The mother was confusing a TB test with a TB vaccine.

#48

We have an anti-vax patient where I work. She picked the wrong doctor to pull that with, so she rarely comes in. She berated us for not finishing forms required for her kids to go to daycare, but we literally could not finish them without vaccinations and lead tests, both of which she refused.
Haven’t seen her kids in forever. She came in for a stuffy nose or something not that long ago.

#49

My friend’s mom is anti-vax. And a nurse. She takes her two youngest kids to a homeopathic “doctor,” who evaluates the state of their health by having them hold a “special stone” and taking their pulse. My friend’s mom also refuses to take the flu vaccine, so she has to wear a special mask when she works at the hospital.

#50

My mom did not vaccinate me as a kid, as of two days ago I officially have rubella.

#51

Not a doctor, but worked in a pediatric ED for many years. Had a young boy come in, don’t remember exactly how old maybe 8 or 9. Comes in obtunded and stiff as a board. We take home to the resuscitation room and do all the full work up stuff including a spinal tap. It was work to try to position him because he was so stiff. I am assisting with the tap. The fellow was able to get into the intervertebral space and a milky fluid literally shoots out of the needle and onto her chest. She hooked up the manometer to measure the pressure and the fluid climbed all the way to the top and out even with the extension added to it. I had never seen that before in hundreds of taps. I don’t remember pressure, but as you can imagine it was astronomically high. We got the kid as stable as we could and transferred him to the PICU. He ended up living, but lost three of his extremities due to sepsis. As well as severe cognitive impairment as a result of the high pressures. Cultures showed H flu meningitis, which is the most common form of meningitis. He was never vaccinated. The HIB vaccine is > 95% effective in preventing meningitis. It was sobering to watch the parents realize their decision to withhold a vaccine has unimaginably altered the course of their lives and the life of their child.

#52

Standard stuff really. Had a kid on a ventilator with a preventable illness at a major research hospital in California. The mom was anti-vaccine. The kid began to deteriorate and the mom spent a lot of time reaching out to her antivax community. One visited her in the hospital and said ‘honey there was nothing you could do’. I lost it at that point.
Edit:
By ‘lost it’ I mean that I had to physically leave the unit before saying or doing something unprofessional. I didn’t say anything to the mom at the time.
The kid recovered! Before they left the ICU had a long talk with the mom about vaccines and she agreed to do more research. God I hope that woman and those like her come to their senses.

#53

Student nurse here. the most heart breaking case i ever saw was a 2 or 3 year old who was facing all 4 limb amputations because he had meningitis and it entered his bloodstream all because mom didn’t vaccinate him. his limbs were completely necrotic, he couldn’t eat (had an NG tube), and stopped speaking. you could tell he felt lonely and scared as hell. he got no visitors that i saw (even though he had 8 siblings) and couldn’t play with the other kids on the unit because he didn’t know how to play without his hands. crushed my heart.
edit: to everyone commenting that the meningitis vaccine isn’t given until you’re 11+ , routine vaccination helps prevent it as well ! the Hib and MMR vaccines both offer some protection from meningitis, as well as not living with 8 other unvaccinated children.

#54

I’m a veterinarian. Everyday I have to convince some reluctant pet owner that I’m not in the pocket of “Big Rabies” and I’m making recommendations for preventative care based on state law, medical research and good judgment.
The memorable people are the ones who listen to me, my advice saves their pet’s life in one way or another, and they’re still pissed about it.
“Your dog definitely needs a Lyme vaccine.”
“Why? It’s not perfect.”
“Your last dog died of Lyme nephritis like two months ago. This vaccine is 93% effective.”
Some people…

#55

My mother (pediatrician) came home worried one day because child protective services are looking into her. Why? She diagnosed an unvacvinated child with pertussis. Turned pale, told the mother she is to IMMEDIATELLY to go an infectious ward. Called it in (like you do with most of these disease, just procedure). And then… the mother was never registered at a hospital. She just sank back into a minority part of town. I don’t think my mother has still seen those patients again. It’s likely the child survived or there would have been some sort of murmur. But yeah…