AGE OF AUTISM

Wrestling with Pigs at the Bad Astronomy Blog

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

Okay, I had to do it. 

When the Bad Astronomy blog at one of my favorite science magazines, Discover, went after Jenny McCarthy I had to respond. I began by pointing out my dismay that the vast majority of articles on the vaccine-autism theory inevitably left the impression that only Jenny McCarthy and we desperate, deluded parents were making these claims.

I thought by pointing out that the former head of the National Institute of Health, Dr. Bernadine Healy, and the former Chief Science Officer for the U. K., Dr. Peter Fletcher shared many of the same concerns and supported an aggressive research program to identify environmental exposures and vulnerable sub-populations the discussion might be moved in a more reasonable direction.

And the attacks began.  I’m a bad parent, society at large should be scared I teach science, and of course, that old-favorite, I should be exposed to people with infectious diseases which I would catch and die.  There were also, surprisingly, a few attacks against Dr. Bernadine Healy, since she was appointed by the first President Bush, which meant, you know, she was a party hack without adequate medical credentials.

Tattered

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

A few days ago I was talking to the latest cutting-edge health professional trying to solve the mystery of my daughter’s autism and seizures when I thought to offer him some advice about entering the bio-med world of injured children and tired parents.

I mentioned the years of struggle many of us have endured, sleepless nights, empty wallets, lost friends, and medical professionals who look away from our children rather than trying to figure out what has gone wrong.  We’re reluctant rebels, made this way only because we grasped that the medical community gave no hope, and even more damning, no explanation.  Why was such a brilliant community suddenly so silent?  If not vaccines, then what?  Where are the demands for a Manhattan project to solve this mystery?  At times I feel this newspaper and a few other voices are like John Connor in the latest “Terminator” movie who declares, “If you hear this message, you are the resistance.”

Appeals Court to Vaccine Court: Don’t be a Putz!

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

Nobody was more surprised by the decisions in Cedillo, Hazlehurst, and Snyder than me.  It wasn’t just that the decisions went against the theory of vaccines causing autism.  I understood how controversial this claim was, and the proof which would probably be needed to sustain it. 

What shocked me was the tone of the opinions, the vitriol against a position which sought to explain a disease which has confounded the medical establishment.  These three public test cases in the Omnibus Autism Proceeding were supposed to give guidance regarding the nearly 5,000 cases filed in the Vaccine Court alleging autism and other neurological problems resulting from vaccinations.  The decisions undercut all of those pending cases.

But away from the glare of media scrutiny the decisions made privately were much different. There was the government concession in the Poling case, in which the government doctors conceded that the nine shots Hannah Poling received in a single doctor’s visit reacted with an underlying mitochondrial disorder leading to her seizures and autism.  Closely following that decision was the win in the Bailey Banks case in which the court found that a vaccine had caused that child’s Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD is often used interchangeably with autism) due to an encephalopathy. 

Jenny McCarthy is the new Bill W.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

If you had a problem with alcohol in the late 1960s or 1970s you might be quietly approached by someone who said they were "a friend of Bill W."  Bill Wilson was the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous and those who had been through his program identified themselves as “a friend of Bill W.”

To be a friend of Bill W. meant you understood certain principles, such as asking forgiveness of the people you’d harmed, and turning your life over to a higher power.  One of my good friends became a “friend of Bill W.” before I met him and remains one of the finest people I know.  He sometimes talks about how much AA means to him and how he has gone onto sponsor other people to become "a friend of Bill W.”  But not a lot.  Being "a friend of Bill W.” also means being humble, regardless of the number of people you may have helped.

The other day I joined a gym.  I haven’t belonged to a gym for years, but for me it’s the best way to exercise.  I know others can be diligent and throw their jogging shoes on and run out the door, but that just isn’t me.  I need a gym.

And since it had been more than a decade since I’d lifted a weight I paid for a couple sessions with a trainer.  The beefy trainer in his early twenties seemed as if he lived a life light years away from my concerns.  In the midst of setting up a work-out routine he asked me about my hobbies, and I mentioned that I wrote for a web-newspaper on autism because I have a daughter with the disorder.

“Do you know Jenny McCarthy?” he quickly asked.

A Tale of Autistic Blood

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

This may be the most important article about autism I’ve ever written.  But first I need you to do a little work.  I need you to go to this site (HERE)  and watch the approximately five minute long video comparing the blood of six autistic children put together by Mark Squibb.

I’ll wait.

Good.  You’re back.  Maybe you’ve watched it several times.  I’ve probably watched it close to twenty times.  I keep wondering if what I’m seeing on the screen is autism.  Not in the way I know that when my child was born she was healthy and after those shots she wasn’t, but seeing what’s different in my beautiful daughter at this very moment from a normally-developing child.

My daughter has bad blood.

Could Swine Flu Deaths be the Key to Understanding Autism?

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

It’s long been the belief among Defeat Autism Now (DAN) practitioners and parents that some combination of toxins and infections are responsible for autism.

While many in the traditional medical community have attacked the plausibility of such a scenario, some early signs from the swine flu investigation are suggesting that this toxin/infection interaction might explain other conditions as well.

Scientists from Dartmouth Medical School and the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) have found that “the ability to mount an immune response to influenza A (H1N1) infection is significantly compromised by a low level of arsenic exposure that commonly occurs through drinking contaminated well water.”  (“Swine Flu: Influenza A (H1N1) Susceptibility Linked to Common Levels of Arsenic Exposure”, Science Daily, May 21, 2009 HERE.) The research was published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives (HERE.)

Flu Vaccine Triples Child Hospitalizations, but Won’t Turn Them into Horned, Hairy Apes, say Experts!

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

Okay, maybe I made up the last part of that headline.

The real facts however, are bad enough.  According to new research to be presented at the 105th International Conference of the American Thoracic Society on May 19th in San Diego, CA, researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota “found that children who had received the flu vaccine had three times the risk of hospitalization, as compared to children who had not received the vaccine.”  (“Children Who Get Flu Vaccine Have Three Times Risk of Hospitalization For Flu, Study Suggests”, Science Daily, May 20, 2009)

The same pattern was reported in asthmatics.  Maybe I missed the importance of these factors, but the report also noted “no other factor-such as insurance plans or severity of asthma-appeared to affect risk of hospitalization.”  Okay, so I take this to mean that despite whether or not you had insurance, your child still had an increased risk of hospitalization if they got a flu shot.  I guess that means this can’t be blamed on all those parents with generous health plans putting their kids in the hospital so mom and dad can get a “date night.”

Or if you’re a parent of a child with asthma it means you're going to be making more trips to the hospital, regardless of whether your child has mild or severe asthma.  It's all so much more democratic!  Although I don't know how you're supposed to take this in light of previous studies which have shown "the concerns that vaccination my be associated with asthma exacerbations have been disproved with multiple studies in the past." I'm not sure, but I'm thinking, maybe the folks at the Mayo Clinic came up with a better designed study.

Invasion of the Brain Snatchers

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

Pathogens are weird. 

They’re not just weirder than you imagine.  They’re weirder than you can imagine.  It’s the kind of thing that if you saw it in a science fiction movie you’d say it was a figment of some screenwriter's imagination.

Consider for a moment, toxoplasma gondii, a favorite of Stanford neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky.  This parasite can only reproduce in cat feces.  When consumed by a mouse or cat, it migrates to the brain, specifically the amygdala, where it forms encapsulated cysts to manipulate the wiring of the brain.

The parasite then targets a neural pathway which normally causes mice and rats to be afraid of cat urine and rewires it.  As a result, the mice and rats are attracted to the smell of cats, and basically present themselves to the cat to be eaten.  It’s such a specific change to brain neurochemistry that Professor Sapolsky has likened it to a human being who goes to college, gets a job, gets married and has a family, but when confronted with a polar bear calmly submits to letting the animal eat him.

Attorney Challenges Letter By AAP's Tayloe on Children's Vaccine Injury Lawsuits

By Robert J. Krakow, Esq.

I am Robert J. Krakow. I am the parent of a 9 year old boy who has a vaccine injury claim. I am also a former prosecutor (1980's) and a  trial lawyer, who now spends much of his professional time engaged in vaccine injury litigation and related issues.

My letter (below) to Dr. Tayloe, President of The American Academy of Pediatrics, is intended to challenge his misrepresentation of the AAP's position supporting the vaccine industry on an important legal issue. The only parties for whom the vaccine court is working as intended are the vaccine manufacturers. In the last 20 years or so since the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was implemented the vaccine sector of the pharmaceutical industry has flourished. At the same time children have been frustrated in their struggle for  justice and redress for serious vaccine injuries. The Ferraris followed the rules, but now the vaccine manufacturers, supported by the AAP, want to change the rules 23 years after enactment. The letter explains the rest.

(A pdf of the formal letter on proper letterhead is HERE.)  

Re: Is the AAP “Dedicated to the Health of All Children” or to
Vaccine Industry Interests?

Dear Dr. Tayloe:

Your “Letter from the President”1 published in the May edition of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (“AAP”) newsletter misleads readers regarding the AAP’s position on children’s vaccine injury lawsuits. [Editor's Note, read the newsletter HERE] The AAP has taken a pro-industry position adverse to the rights of injured children in its amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court of the United States in American Home Products Corporation, dba Wyeth, et al., v. Ferrari, et al., No. 08-1120.

You state that,

The Academy is writing an amicus brief for the U.S. Supreme Court concerning a vaccine-related injury lawsuit in Georgia that is being brought by plaintiffs in state court prior to a final ruling by the VICP on the merits of their claim. The viability of the VICP could be in jeopardy if the manufacturer is not successful in this case. The VICP must remain the first contact for all alleged vaccine-related injuries before plaintiffs are allowed to pursue legal action in civil court. Rolling the clock back to the early 1980s when many vaccine manufacturers exited the market secondary to massive vaccine-related injury lawsuits would significantly undermine our already fragile childhood immunization program. (Emphasis added).

Your statement misconstrues the issues presented in the case and utterly misrepresents the position taken by the AAP in its amicus brief.

As clearly set forth in Wyeth’s brief, which the AAP explicitly endorses, the Ferraris fully complied with the requirements of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (“VICP” or “vaccine court”) by filing their claim with VICP in the first instance before exercising their legal right to withdraw their vaccine court claim. The Ferraris then pursued their claim in the Georgia state trial courts. The Ferraris properly made the vaccine court their “first contact” in pursuing their claim that vaccines neurologically injured their infant son. Your suggestion to the contrary is factually incorrect.

Your statement shows that you fail to understand that the 1986 tort reform enactment was designed to protect vaccine manufacturers.

What’s Going On? – The Question of Continuing High Levels of Toxic Metal Excretion

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

It’s been said that a parent is only as happy as their least happy child.   That saying should probably be reworked for autism parents.  We will be obsessed to the degree of impairment of our least recovered child. 

I’m fortunate that my son Ben had a complete recovery with the quick implementation of the gluten/casein free diet after his 18 month vaccination, but after seven years of bio-medical treatments my daughter Jacqueline is still severely affected with autism and seizures.  It is for her and the parents of other children like her that I write this article.

THE PROBLEM

About four years ago I started tracking my daughter’s toxic metal excretions using the Doctor’s Data lab.  The woman who answers the phone at the lab knows me as the guy who asks if the latest UTM has been completed on “my lovely daughter.”  I’ve got close to 50 of these tests on her and thanks to Jacqueline’s doctor they’ve been charted on graphs.

From the beginning aluminum showed itself to be a problem.  Her excretions have ranged from 8-13 times normal.  In August of 2006 when we were going after strep her aluminum excretion hit a high of 80 times normal.  Her aluminum excretion has ebbed and flowed since that time, but it’s still usually somewhere between 5-10 times normal.  The other metals have also ebbed and flowed, but aluminum has been the most dramatic.