A baby almost died after his mum briefly considered not letting him have the MMR jab after reading false information on TikTok.
Sophie Dale, 27, was "nervous" to vaccinate son Levi because of social media posts which wrongly linked the measles vaccination to debunked autism risks. She pushed her fears aside and book him in for his first MMR jab, but the 11-month-old caught measles just days before his injection appointment.
He had several seizures and spent six days in hospital fighting for his life after it caused a severe case of sepsis. Levi survived and five years on is an "insanely clever little ball of energy", as well as being a great big brother to sister Winnie, one.
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But measles cases are rising in the UK due to lower uptake of the MMR vaccine, according to World Health Organization (WHO). Sophie now advocates for the vaccine, having seen the devastating impacts of measles on her son.
Her fears didn't delay the date Levi was due to have the vaccine, and he just coincidently caught the disease before his scheduled jab appointment. Sophie, from Chesham, said: "I was in two minds but decided to go for it, then he got ill before he had chance.
"Seeing him ill, the hardest part was he had always been such a happy little boy. He couldn't understand why his mum was allowing them to prod and poke him, even though they were saving his life I just wanted to ask them to stop hurting him.
"Even after what happened to Levi, with my second child, I was still nervous to get her vaccinations done because of the scaremongering. But I knew I had to do it.
"I get the fear around vaccinations but this is what happened to my son. If you're nervous and scared about vaccinating, it's so easy just to say you won't do it.
"But do your research and make an educated decision – ask the doctors questions and talk it through with people."
Research in 1998 wrongly suggested the MMR jab could cause autism. The work was dismissed and the researcher was struck off by the General Medical Council in 2010.
Sophie, who is currently on maternity leave, saw posts online wrongly linking the jab to autism, but went ahead and booked the jab for her son to keep him safe. Leading up to his jab, Levi had a high temperature and some residual rash from the measles, but had mainly recovered from the illness.
The day before his first birthday party Sophie got a phone call to say he had taken a turn while she was shopping for his birthday cake ingredients, in November 2018.
She said: "I was stood in Sainsbury's and my mum called me screaming that he was having a seizure. I rushed home and his temperature was crazy.
"When we arrived at the hospital a team of what looked like 20 people took him away. It was so scary – I remember thinking 'this is what you see on 24 Hours in A&E'.
"I couldn't watch but I could hear his screams."
After six days in Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury he was allowed to go home, but had a year of check-ups to test if sepsis had damaged his hearing or vision. Sophie said: "I didn't realise how serious it was at the time.
"But I was told the measles had basically destroyed his immune system, and he developed sepsis while fighting it. By the grace of God he is now okay but sometimes I look back at the hospital pictures and I can't believe it."
She added while she found making the decision to vaccinate her children a hard one, she knew how important it was. She now finds it "frustrating" to see people not vaccinating their babies, because she has seen first-hand how dangerous the conditions can be.
Sophie said: "There's a lot of misinformation out there so I know how hard it is. But after seeing Levi in that way, I could never have forgiven myself if that had been because of a decision I had made."
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