Mum whose baby daughter nearly died from whooping cough pleads with parents to vaccinate their kids… after one month in intensive care
'Do not tell me that not vaccinating your kids isn’t hurting anyone but your own kids'
A MUM whose baby daughter nearly died at six weeks old, after contracting whooping cough, is pleading with other parents to vaccinate their kids.
Anne Mae Braiden’s little girl Isabelle has been fighting for her life in intensive care for a month, and at one point was just hours away from death.
Now aged 10 weeks old, Isabelle is facing another two months in hospital, and the mum-of-two has spoken of the trauma of watching her child turn blue and receiving addictive morphine treatment.
Anne, who is from Victoria in Canada, wrote: “I think people need to see what not vaccinating their kids does to the OTHER kids like my 6 week old daughter.
“Isabelle has been in the PEDS ICU (paediatric intensive care unit) since she was 6 weeks old with whooping cough.
“She was on a ventilator for 3 weeks and CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure, a treatment to keep the airways open) for 3 days.
“We’re still facing another 2 months in hospital.
“She has to learn how to eat all over again, she’s going through major withdrawals from the morphine and sedative she was on when she was ventilated.
“Do you know how hard it is to watch your 10-week-old go through withdrawals?
“We were hours away from losing her, the nurse picked her up and ran her down the hall to the ICU to get her ventilated because we were losing her.
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“What you do with your kids is your choice but do not tell me that not vaccinating your kids isn’t hurting anyone but your own kids.
“Isabelle is proof that it harms other children who aren’t old enough to get their vaccines yet.
“My son is vaccinated to protect himself and other kids he’s around.
“It never crossed my mind not to vaccinate, I want to protect my children and other children.
“Please vaccinate your kids, it’s not fair that my little girl is in the PICU coughing and turning blue with alarms going off because she can’t breathe just because you didn’t vaccinate your kids.”
The post has been shared nearly 11,000 times – after Anne asked others to spread the word.
Whooping cough: The facts
Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is potentially fatal in babies.
In the UK, kids can have vaccinations against the infection at eight, 12 and 16 weeks of age, as well as a pre-school booster.
The vaccines don’t last for life, but do stop kids getting whooping coughing when they are most vulnerable.