"For most of his 10 years as a neonatologist, Dr. Timmy Ho encountered one or two parents per week who didn’t want their newborns to receive a vitamin K injection, a standard step to prevent bleeding. Recently, in just one week, he saw three or four per day — numbers, he said, that were becoming more common.One of the babies suffered a type of bleeding in the brain that vitamin K could have prevented, said Dr. Ho, who practices in Boston. He had never seen that before.Vitamin K plays a crucial role in blood clotting but doesn’t pass to the baby through the placenta effectively, and there isn’t much of it in breast milk. Infants are deficient in it until they can eat solid foods. This can lead to bleeding, from minor oozing from the umbilical cord to potentially life-threatening gastrointestinal or brain hemorrhages.One injection immediately after birth is very effective at fixing the deficiency, and it has been routinely administered in the United States for more than 60 years.Now, the shot appears to have been swept up in broader anti-vaccine sentiment, even though it isn’t a vaccine..."
The story continues at The New York Times.
People are scared of needles. That's what it comes down to.
ReplyDeleteDecades ago I was working the ER of an inner-city hospital and overheard a mother telling her misbehaving child "you behave, or I'll have that doctor give you a shot with a needle." I refrained from saying anything, but I was furious with that mother for instilling a fear of needles in her child.
DeleteAs a child neurologist, I too have seen this-- totally preventable intracranial hemorrhages with lifelong sequelae.
ReplyDeleteI've also had to examine two young babies who passed away from whooping cough, who'd lived in unvaccinated homes and been unvaccinated themselves.
Convincing some vaccine/ preventative care skeptics requires bridging the distance between the present day and the days when these diseases affected enough people that no convincing was necessary.
The most liberal of parents in the USA will still insist on parents's rights when it comes to what they allow to happen to their children. This is one of those rare non-partisan issues, it's an idiot issue. Whether you're out rolling coal and claiming Gates is trying to put a chip in your head, or you don't want to expose your child to unnatural elements and namaste, you're an idiot.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame a doctor can't just pass them a release slip to sign that says, "I decline this potentially life-saving procedure and accept that if my child dies that's on me, for being an idiot". I'm not a lawyer, so the text might need cleaning up.
"I decline this potentially life-saving procedure, and accept that if my child dies for a reason easily preventable by this procedure, I will be tried for negligent homicide."
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