VACCINE injury has been a problem since the 1960s but is still not taken seriously by government, who adopt a callous ‘you took one for the team’ approach. Their disdain is illustrated by the meagre compensation scheme: recipients must be 60 per cent injured to qualify, a level reduced from its initial 80 per cent. A flat fee of £120,000 is the payment; no sliding scale that considers disability less than 60 per cent or compensation for a life ruined. Government once asked drug manufacturers to contribute some of their billions to an injury scheme like they do in the US. They said no.
Parents of injured children wanting to apply are plunged into a scientific nightmare and are often asked to prove causation, whereas the scheme works on balance of probability. Parents are simply not qualified to understand the complicated biological processes that cause permanent disability or death. Neither are many doctors. Consequently, many claims fail.
Families want the authorities to take responsibility, but they refuse. Last week the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) sent a ‘do not reply’ letter to Susan Bateman, mother of Martin Bateman, permanently disabled by the measles jab in 1971 when he was 15 months old. (Read Martin’s story here.) Martin died a horrible death in 2023, a week before his 54th birthday. Mrs Bateman, 78, wrote several times to her Labour MP Stephen Morgan (Portsmouth) begging for recognition of her son’s death. Morgan offered his condolences but little else. She persisted then received an insensitive letter from the DHSC which said: ‘I would like to begin by offering my sincere condolences to you, at what is undoubtedly a very sad time.’ Followed by three paragraphs explaining why the measles vaccine is so important, stressing it had saved lives but omitting the fact that measles cases had reduced by 98 per cent before any vaccine was introduced.
Mrs Bateman, who says her grief has intensified since Martin died, said: ‘It’s no good to me pointing out about measles as my son didn’t have measles, he had a measles vaccination that caused brain damage and post-measles encephalitis.’
Jackie Fletcher, 68, founder of the vaccine injury campaign group Justice Awareness and Basic Support (JABS), and her husband John, 72, fought for 18 years to gain compensation for the youngest of their three sons, Robert, who was injured by the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab in 1992 at the age of 13 months. Ten days post vaccine, Robert, now 33, developed severe epilepsy. He never recovered, has the mental age of a 14-month-old, is non-verbal, doubly incontinent, unable to feed or dress himself and uses a wheelchair. He needs 24/7 care and Jackie sleeps in a single bed next to him in case he has a seizure during the night.
When Robert was first assessed for vaccine injury at a Manchester clinic in 1996, two years before Dr Andrew Wakefield published his case study series looking at whether the MMR, bowel disease and autism were connected, Robert’s doctor accepted he had been developing normally before the MMR, agreed that his first seizure ten days later was significant, and that he had no head injury from another source. Mrs Fletcher said: ‘Then he asked us to describe the biological mechanism that caused the damage in Robert’s brain. Of course we had no clue.’ On that basis, their claim was refused.
Then the scheme offered £30,000 compensation for 80 per cent disability. By the time the Fletchers made a successful appeal in 2010, thanks to solicitor Peter Todd, then at the firm Hodge Jones and Allen, the award had been raised to £120,000. They rightly won their appeal but were refused the full amount and received just over £91,000. Mrs Fletcher said: ‘They said it was a top-up payment, as if we’d received £30,000, but we never had. They knew this but still refused us the £120,000.’
An incredible decision, punishing the parents for being right. The award disappeared quickly, spent mostly on converting the family’s Cheshire bungalow so that Robert’s wheelchair could be easily manoeuvred into each room.
There is no calculation for the toll a disabled child has on even the most loving families. The Fletchers are united, but many strained marriages break down, their injured children placed in permanent care facilities. Doctors fail to understand how parents unconditionally love their disabled child and can comment ‘Put that child behind you and start again,’ compounding their grief.
Mrs Fletcher worked in banking before her children were born then became a registered childminder and worked from home. She gave it up to care for Robert and never returned to banking, a job she loved. Husband John rose to chief engineer at Cheshire County Council and was the main breadwinner. Mrs Fletcher said: ‘John would often come home and finish dinner if I was called to the phone to speak to parents who’d called JABS. Then after the children went to bed, we’d sit at the computer loading information on to the JABS site or writing letters to health ministers and MPs trying to get them to take vaccine injury seriously.’
Life is a constant round of hospital appointments and near-death experiences. ‘Rob is blue-lighted to hospital at least twice a year and each time he’s rushed into resus, we don’t know whether that will be the last time,’ Mrs Fletcher said. ‘Holiday destinations revolve around whether there’s a hospital close by. We never go abroad. I remember once in Falmouth, Cornwall. There was a beautiful sandy beach, and John took our older sons to play while I stood on the path with Rob because we couldn’t get the wheelchair down there. I recognised then I was living outside life, watching life but not part of it.
‘Once, Robert spent ten days saying nothing but “no, no, no” all day and half the night. It was like water torture, it wouldn’t stop.’
The washing created by Robert is phenomenal. Complete bed linen changes are often needed three to four times per week when his incontinence pads fail. He has carers who come each afternoon, so the couple get respite, and they joke about date night every Friday when they have dinner with friends; their curfew is 11pm.
Andrew, 42, and Stuart, 38, were nine and five when Robert was born, and as they reached teenage years with the inevitable 2am phone calls because of missed trains or buses, Mr and Mrs Fletcher often longed to have the same problem with Robert. The older boys, married now with their own families, were good with their non-violent, affectionate brother though, understanding when he ruined their carefully constructed games with soldiers and superheroes.
Mrs Bateman, who has a daughter Sharon, now 50, born after Martin, described to Stephen Morgan (whose latest newsletter trumpets how much he plans to do for local children) how caring for their son, who she and her husband loved deeply, took a toll on their family. Mrs Bateman said: ‘I gave my job up, so we just had my husband’s money coming in to live on and pay all the bills. Martin never had the life he could and should have had; neither did we as a family, our lives revolved round looking after Martin 24/7.
‘I miss Martin every day. Everybody loved him. We loved him. I want someone in government to take responsibility for his death. His life meant something and so did his death.’
Last October, November and December, I began emailing Andrew Gwynne, Secretary for Public Health and Prevention. Gwynne is allegedly looking at reforming the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS). I have heard nothing except from his assistant, Claire Reid, who has sent me several apologies for his lack of response.
JABS and other parent campaigners such as Rosemary Fox (1960s and 1970s) and Olivia Price have met many health ministers since the childhood vaccination scheme was introduced in 1959. A pattern developed. They were either new to the post and needed to get up to speed, only to move on a few months later, or raced out of meetings as red-faced assistants rushed in and announced some (pre-planned) emergency. They will not speak to journalists and these days meetings are as likely as getting a response to an email. Rare!
