ER Nurses - frontlines of vaccine reactions?

A testimonial is not evidence - The language of academia may sometimes use the term "anecdotal evidence". Unusual presentations are written up as case reports for other clinicians to read and learn about a diagnosis or medical events that are sometimes referred to as "zebras", or atypical, not commonly seen but from which practitioners can glean insight. 

What follows was cut and pasted from a post on social media, and the writer is anonymous so none of this can be verified. We can only hope that this is a work of fiction given what the writer alleges. I attempted to locate a link to the source but was not able to do so. I asked the poster (who had cut/paste it from another site) to please provide a link to the source. If I am able to obtain a link to the origination of this quote I will provide it but this was not available at the time I posted this. 

If this is indeed real the phenomenon of adverse reactions to vaccines - reactions serious enough to cause people to seek assessment and care at a hospital - is hardly a "zebra".  

Original post by an ER nurse over at the None/Select/Delayed Vaccinations group over at the BabyCenter forums:

As an E.R. nurse, I have seen the cover up. Where do you think kids go when they have a vaccine reaction? They go to the E.R. They come to me. I cannot even begin to guess how many times over the years I have seen vaccine reactions come through my E.R. Without any exaggeration, it has to be counted in hundreds. Sometimes it seemed like it was one or two cases in a single shift, every shift, for weeks. Then I would get a lull, and I wouldn't catch one for a week or two, then I'd catch another case per night for a couple weeks. This was common.

Once, I was training a nursing student, about to graduate, on their E.R. experience rotation in nursing school. This student and I floated up to triage to cover the triage nurse for a break. I was quizzing them on what to ask and look for as a triage nurse on pediatric kids that came through. I made a point about asking about immunizations right out the gates. The student was puzzled, and asked why, and I told the student because we see vaccine reactions every day and its their job to catch it, alert the doctor and the parents, and report it to VAERS. Some higher power apparently smiled on my attempt to open the eyes of another nurse I guess, because not even ten minutes later, a woman brought her child up to the counter. Sudden onset super high fever and lethargy. I asked if the child was up to date on vaccination. The mother replied he had them just a few hours ago. I glanced at the student, who looked shocked and looked back at me in disbelief. I nodded, told them to remember this, and then took the mom and her child to finish the triage in back. When I was done I came back and sat down with the student, and asked what he learned that night so far. The first response: "What I was told about vaccines wasn't true". I couldn't have said it better. That student is going to go on to be like me, advocating for his patients with his eyes wide open.

The cases almost always presented similarly, and often no one else connected it. The child comes in with either a fever approaching 105, or seizures, or lethargy/can't wake up, or sudden overwhelming sickness, screaming that won't stop, spasms, GI inclusion, etc. And one of the first questions I would ask as triage nurse, was, are they current on their vaccinations? It's a safe question that nobody sees coming, and nobody understands the true impact of. Parents (and co-workers) usually just think I'm trying to rule out the vaccine preventable diseases, when in fact, I am looking to see how recently they were vaccinated to determine if this is a vaccine reaction. Too often I heard a parent say something akin to "Yes they are current, the pediatrician caught up their vaccines this morning during their check up, and the pediatrician said they were in perfect health!" If I had a dollar for every time I'd heard that, I could fly to Europe for free.

But here's the more disturbing part. For all the cases I've seen, I have NEVER seen any medical provider report them to VAERS. I have filed VAERS reports. But I am the ONLY nurse I have EVER met that files VAERS reports. I also have NEVER met a doctor that filed a VAERS report. Mind you, I have served in multiple hospitals across multiple states, alongside probably well over a hundred doctors and probably 300-400+ nurses. I've worked in big hospitals (San Francisco Bay Area Metro 40 bed ER, Las Vegas NV Metro 44 bed ER) and small hospitals (Rural access 2 bed ER, remote community 4 bed ER) and everything in between. When I say NEVER, I mean NEVER. I have even made a point of sitting in the most prominent spot at the nurses station filling out a VAERS report to make sure as many people saw me doing it as possible to generate the expected "what are you doing" responses to get that dialog going with people. And in every case, if a nurse approached me, their response was "I've never done that" or "i didn't know we could do that" or, worse "What is VAERS?" which was actually the most common response. The response from doctors? Silence. Absolute total refusal to engage in discussion or to even acknowledge what I was doing or what VAERS was.

The big take away from that? VAERS is WOEFULLY under reported. I am PROOF of that. The number one place parents bring their kids in the event of a vaccine reaction is the E.R., and as an E.R. staffer, I have NEVER met anyone who filed one, in spite of seeing hundreds of cases of obvious vaccine associated harm come through. What does that say about reported numbers? The CDC/HHS admits that VAERS is under-reported, and probably only representative of 1/10th the actual number of injuries. I contest that, and from personal experience, I would say the numbers in VAERS are more like 1/1000th the actual numbers, not 1/10th.

And the final part of that, is that I have, first hand, seen blatant cover ups from doctors. I have seen falsification of medical records and documentation via intentional omission. I have challenged doctors who refused to put in the chart that the child was vaccinated 4 hours ago and was in perfect health, and now suddenly they are non-responsive, seizing, febrile at 105, and that labs, LP, and imaging confirms cerebral edema/encephalitis. I reminded the doctor as they are writing their report that the child was vaccinated mere hours before. And at the end, there is total omission of this fact, and the physician pass-off notes state encephalitis of unknown origin. I ask the doctor if they will file a VAERS report, and they argue that this has nothing to do with it, its purely coincidental, and nothing should be filed, they are safe and effective. I remind them that VAERS is a reporting body for ANY symptoms that are contemporaneous to vaccination, whether causation is believed to be associated or not, and I get the dismissal that they are not filing it because it has nothing to do with it. No one brings it up to the parents. Its this giant rug-sweep that happens, and any mention of the vaccination is systematically removed or withheld from the record. A perfect example of this, was an ambulance crew that came in with a pass-off report that included the fact the child had been vaccinated only hours prior to onset of symptoms. The physician made sure this pass-off sheet disappeared mysteriously and could not get filed with the patient medical record. So yes, I have seen the vaccine damage cover up first hand. I know that it is intentional and active in the medical community. I know that it is happening. And on top of total denial of any association, and total cover up, they also refuse to report to VAERS which is supposed to be reported to for ANYTHING that is even in NO WAY SUSPECTED to be associated with the vaccine. This is a systemic suppression of information and statistics.

And yes, in the cases described above, I did approach the parents, and I did tell them about VAERS, and I did start a case for them and file a report. I did force the issue through my charting, although it will most likely be buried and overlooked. I have experienced the corruption and suppression of the truth in the medical community about vaccines first hand from the provider perspective. It does happen. Every day.

Life has risks - risks of not vaccinating, risks of vaccinating - we all must be willing to accept the consequences of the decisions we make and should be comfortable with the level of risk/benefit of whatever decision we make regarding vaccinating/not vaccinating - and our decision to do so should be free of coercion, manipulation, or pressure.