|
 by
Jane M. Orient, M.D.
When
Your Doctor is Wrong: Hepatitis B Vaccine & Autism,
by Judy Converse, 294 pp., paper, $18.69, ISBN 1-4010-2973-6,
Xlibris.com, 2002.
According to Baker’s
Law, "The entire neurologic issue is whether the patient
has a neurologic disease or not. All else is mere commentary."
No neurologist, A.B. Baker declared, should ever take a psychiatric
history.
One of the great
neurologist’s former residents, Harold Klawans, applies
his mentor’s advice posthumously to the case of Isaac
Newton in his 1990 book Newton’s Madness: Further Tales
of Clinical Neurology. The death of Newton’s mother,
his religious fervor, and other psychiatric speculations were
simply irrelevant Newton himself was correct in attributing
his episodic irritability, insomnia, anorexia, memory difficulties,
and tremor to "sleeping too often by my fire"--which
was used for his chemical experiments. Newton suffered chronic
mercury intoxication, recently confirmed by hair analysis.
With regard to
autism, Baker’s Law is apparently forgotten, as Mrs.
Converse testifies in her book, originally titled "Saving
Ben." Her child’s extreme sensitivity, sleep disturbances,
vomiting, bowel symptoms, and incoordination were at first
called "normal," and her concerns ascribed to the
anxieties of a new mother. Later the no-longer-deniable symptoms
were blamed on the parents. His mother’s observation
that worsening followed vaccinations was dismissed, and on
one occasion she was actually threatened with a report to
Child Protective Services if she delayed a scheduled shot.
Were Ben’s
terrible afflictions the result of the hepatitis B vaccine
that he received immediately after birth, without her knowledge,
much less her consent? Mrs. Converse eventually came to that
conclusion. Her predictions were borne out in Ben’s response
to the equivalent of challenge testing insisted upon by his
pediatricians.
The book is really
intended for parents of autistic children, who will find practical
ideas on diet and therapeutic exercises. What helped Ben may
help others.
Doctors can learn
a lot from it too. It is a scathing indictment of the medical
profession for clinical ineptitude and callousness bordering
on brutality in relating to parents of a seriously ill child.
It raises penetrating questions on the vaccine approval process,
and the uninformed non-consent for their use.
One could wish
for better editing, references rather than a simple bibliographic
listing, and an index. But while Mrs. Converse is not an exemplary
scientific writer, she is a heroic mother--and a better physician
than many with the degree of M.D., employing techniques of
careful observation and experimentation, while putting the
patient first whatever the cost.
Journal
of American Association of Physicians & Surgeons Spring
2003
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