Unvaccinated Boy Nearly Died from Tetanus, His Treatment Costed Almost $1 million

An unvaccinated Oregon boy who spent eight weeks in intensive care and almost died after contracting tetanus was cared for by a medical team of more than 100 people. Dr. Carl Eriksson, a pediatric critical care specialist at Oregon Health & Science University, said at a news conference Friday that without medical care, the child would have died.

 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a case study on the 6-year-old boy's medical ordeal on Friday. The 2017 case is the first case of pediatric tetanus in Oregon in more than 30 years because of widespread childhood immunization against it began in the 1940s. Dr. Judith Guzman-Cottrill, a pediatric infectious disease doctor at OHSU, says she had never before seen a case of tetanus and never expected to see one in her career. 

The boy was hospitalized for two months for tetanus and almost died after getting cut while playing on a farm. The doctors from Oregon Health & Science University who treated the boy say he was on a ventilator for 44 days and stayed in a darkened room to reduce stimulation that triggered his muscle spasms.

 

His parents declined a second dose of the tetanus vaccine for their son after he had recovered. The location of the child in Oregon was not disclosed. You can read the full report here.  The Oregonian/Oregon Live has a story here.

Lawmakers in Oregon and Washington are considering bills to end non-medical exemptions for childhood vaccines due to a Pacific Northwest measles outbreak.