Age: 1.5
Sex: M
Vaccine: DTAP, IPV
Symptoms: Abnormal behaviour, Crying, Ear infection, Emotional distress, Head discomfort
Clinical narrative: Wednesday, February 8, 2012 - Patient went to the doctor's office for his 18 month check up and vaccinations. He received 2 vaccinations that day. Polio (IPV) and his 4th DTaP vaccine. Sunday, February 12, 2012 - Patient came down with a fever in the late afternoon of Sunday. When his temperature was taken, it registered 102.7 on a temporal thermometer. He was given Ibuprofen. Sunday, February 12, 2012-Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - Patient's fever continued until the morning of Wednesday, February 15, 2012. He was given Ibuprofen periodically throughout the 3 days to help with fever. Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - Patient was free of fever in the morning but had broken out in a rash on his torso. It appeared to be baby measles/roseola. We had no real concern at this point because patient has an older brother, age 6, that experienced baby measles around this same age. However, concern started to set in when patient begin screaming for periods of time in the morning while holding his head. Nothing my husband or I did could console him. Patient can normally be consoled if sick by holding and walking him. However, 30 minutes later he had an episode of 20 minutes and then another episode of 25 minutes. Patient would grab his head and begin a piercing scream and thrash about on the floor. If you tried to hold him, he just pushed away. His thrashing was so aggressive at some points that he would hit his head on the floor. Patient has never displayed this type of reaction when sick ever before. During late morning, while a screaming episode was occurring-this one lasting an hour-I could not sit by and continue to observe this so I called our pediatrician to make an appointment. Patient had more episodes of screaming before going to the doctor's office. I took patient to the pediatrician's office in the afternoon. Dr. checked patient over and said that he had roseola. I was not concerned about the roseola. I was concerned about the screaming episodes. Dr stated that they think babies get headaches with roseola due to lymph nodes in the head and told me to give him Ibuprofen for this. He stated the rash would subside and things should go back to normal. I asked if the screaming episodes could have anything to do with the vaccinations received 1 week prior. He said he didn't know/think so. (I noted that my older son had not had screaming episodes like this with roseola.) Wednesday, February 15, 2012-Friday February 17, 2012 - Patient continued to have screaming episodes throughout the days. He would grab his head and thrash about on the floor. Sometimes he would try to climb up on me to console him but he would then grab his head and throw himself back down. He would stand and do this repeatedly, never letting me hold him. So, Wednesday evening, all day Thursday, and Friday he continued to have the episodes. The longest one lasting 1 hour 30 minutes. I continued to given patient Ibuprofen per doctor's instructions. Friday, February 17, 2012 - The roseola was clearing up. Patient was having his screaming episodes in the morning. After watching these and not being able to help my son, I called my husband at work and told him that we needed to do something for our son. This was not like him. Nothing consoled him. He just looked to be in such pain or something out of the ordinary. We scheduled another pediatrician's visit for this day. My husband met me at the doctor's office. We explained the episodes to Dr. and expressed concern that the episodes were due to the vaccinations given on 2/8/12. We told her that the first Dr. had mentioned headaches with the roseola as a possible culprit. She checked patient out and said he had an ear infection. She prescribed an antibiotic, Sulfameth, for patient to take to 10 days, with us returning 8 days from this day to have his ears checked and talk about the episodes. She also said to give him Ibuprofen until Saturday (2/18/12) but then I could stop with that. **It should be noted that the first Dr. had checked his ears on Wednesday, 2/15/12 and cleared that he did not have an ear infection. Also, of note is patient has had multiple ear infections since birth and he has never acted like he does with these screaming episodes. Sure, he would cry and be really fussy with all ear infections. However, we were always able to console him by holding/walking him. And the scream emitted during these episodes is a high-pitched, never before heard scream. Saturday, February 18, 2012-Monday, February 20,2012 - Patient was given the prescribed antibiotic, along with the Ibuprofen until Saturday evening. He still had several episodes of the piercing screaming. Monday, February 20, 2012 - Patient had his last screaming episode about 9 PM that evening. It lasted about 15 minutes. It was a repeat of the behaviors that we had experienced throughout the week. Saturday, February 25, 2012 - Patient was taken in to his pediatrician's office. Dr. checked his ears and cleared him of infection. We, patient's parents, expressed to Dr. that we felt the piercing screaming and inconsolability was a result of the vaccination. We inquired specifically about the DTaP. We stated that we were going to report the event. I had called the Centers for Disease Control earlier in the week to request more information, as is stated on the forms one receives at time of vaccination. They said they did not have any more information than what is on the worksheet attached to particular vaccination. I was advised to call state health department. I called state health department and was advised to call the immunization branch. I called the immunization branch and was advised to report the event. It should be noted that both my husband and I feel that this was definitely an adverse reaction. Patient had never displayed that type of behavior before when sick. We are concerned about any future vaccinations of DTaP for patient. We have discussed this with his pediatrician. Should we just get the DT? We also have concern for a baby that we have due in April. Should we have the new baby vaccinated with this particular vaccination? Should we use just the DT?