New Web Site Launched For Gardasil Victims
January 23, 2010 http://thebulletin.us/articles/2010/01/23/news/nation/doc4b5b52b50fd80963422141.txt
Two North Carolina women who met when their
daughters both became sick after being vaccinated by the same lot of the
controversial Gardasil vaccine, have launched a new Web site to help victims
find information and support.
TruthAboutGardasil.org is the
brainchild of Marian Green, 42, of Boone, North Carolina and Rosemary Mathis,
45, of nearby North Wilkesboro.
Unknown to one another at the time, both women decided two years ago to have
their daughters vaccinated with Gardasil, a vaccine created by Merck & Co. which
protects teens against several cancer-causing strains of the sexually
transmitted human papillomavirus.
“Holly used to run six to 10 miles daily – she was at the top of her game,” said
Mrs. Greene about her now 18-year-old daughter. “But within a few days of
getting the Gardasil shot, she couldn’t walk and could hardly breathe.”
Rosemary’s now 14-year-old daughter, Lauren, received a vaccine from the same
lot number. “Within 14 days, she started to become sick and is now completely
disabled,” Mrs. Mathis said.
The two found themselves running from doctor to doctor looking for help. In
Holly’s case, she was eventually diagnosed with pericarditis, an inflammation
and swelling around the heart, which the doctor said was caused by the Gardasil
shot.
Doctors at Duke University have determined that Lauren Mathis is suffering from
a “vaccine injury” and say it will take her at least two years to recover from
it.
“She’s coming around,” Mrs. Mathis said. “She was completely bedridden before
and isn’t now.”
During those frantic two years spent searching for answers, Marian and Rosemary
stumbled upon a Yahoo group for victims of the vaccine. It was here that they
met each other along with hundreds of other mothers whose daughters became sick
after receiving the Gardasil vaccine.
Eventually, they found another group for Garadasil victims on Facebook, where
thousands more were looking for help.
“And these people were from all over the world, not just the USA,” Mrs. Green
says.
Between the two of them, they have been in contact with parents from England,
Spain, Germany, Holland and Australia, all with daughters who suffered serious
injury or died after receiving either Gardasil or its European equivalent,
GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix.
Ultimately, they decided it was time to start
TruthAboutGardasil.org, which is
designed to unite victims in their search for help and to get the drug removed
from the market.
The site contains an information page with important facts about the vaccine as
well as page after page of documentation on victims, including a memorial page
telling the story of those who have died.
Another page lists “Guardian Angels,” women in dozens of states who have been
through this experience and can be contacted for support and to guide others in
their search for answers.
Philadelphia resident Jodi Speakman, 39, serves as the “Guardian Angel” for the
state of Pennsylvania. Her daughter, Victoria, 18, became sick after receiving
her second shot of Gardasil in Feb. 2008, and suffers from a litany of serious
medical problems such as seizures, intermittent paralysis, memory loss,
confusion, chronic fatigue.
“My daughter can never be left home alone. She can’t go to school, go out with
her friends or work (and) has little ‘normalcy’ in her life,” Mrs. Speakman
says, adding that they’ve had to increase the security in their home because
Victoria often gets confused after a seizure and “goes missing.”
Victoria’s doctor has confirmed that her symptoms are directly related to
Gardasil, “but not in a way that he can test or prove,” she said.
In the meantime, her family is left struggling with medical bills and searching
for help. “I cry every day,” she admits.
She got involved in the new site because “There are so many girls out there with
the same symptoms as my daughter, but they don’t make the connection with
Gardasil. If we all come together to seek medical help for our daughters, we can
raise awareness.”
Comments are already pouring into the new site. One woman says her granddaughter
had her first Gardasil shot and “hasn’t been the same since.”
Another woman says her daughter came down with Hodgkins Lymphoma shortly after
receiving a Gardasil shot and says, “I have located approximately 20 others with
the same circumstance.”
As of the summer of 2009, there have been more than 15,000 thousand reported
reactions to Gardasil, including more than 3,000 injuries and 48 deaths.
Fourteen of the girls who died after getting Gardasil were under the age 16.
Even though the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) sent a warning letter to
Merck’s West Point, Pennsylvania manufacturing plant where Gardasil is made,
citing “significant deviations from current good manufacturing practice” they
continue to stand behind the vaccine it fast-tracked into use in 2006.
Despite the fact that Merck’s lead researcher on both the Gardasil and Cervarix
vaccine, Dr. Diane Harper, has publicly stated that the drugs will do little to
reduce cervical cancer rates and were never adequately tested on children under
age 15, Merck stands behind its product. With Gardasil profits ranging between
$1.4 and $1.6 billion in 2008, they have repeatedly expressed confidence in its
safety.
For more information, visit
www.truthaboutgardasil.org.
Susan Brinkmann can be reached at
fiat723@aol.com