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Friday, October 30, 2009
Felice J. Freyer
Journal Medical Writer
Blake Graumann was born with an underdeveloped heart, the left side too small and barely able to pump. In his three years, he?s already had three open-heart surgeries and probably will need a heart transplant someday. If he got the flu, he could end up in the hospital; indeed, he could die.
That?s why Blake?s mother, Sarah, of Providence, is beside herself thinking about healthy schoolchildren lining up next week to get vaccinated against the swine flu ?? when she can?t get vaccine for Blake. She has written letters to health officials and politicians pleading for a change of policy.
?This is such a serious problem. We?ve got to bring some attention to it,? Graumann says. ?I think all the high-risk kids in the state should be getting it first.?
Next week, school-based clinics for swine flu vaccine will begin in Rhode Island. They will continue over 28 days, as vaccine becomes available, in an order randomly generated by computer. All children of school age ?? sick and well ?? can get their vaccine this way. Younger children can get it from their pediatricians, hopefully starting next week.
The purpose of this system, says Health Director David R. Gifford, is to get the vaccine to as many children as possible as quickly as possible, in spite of vaccine supplies that have been late, sporadic and unpredictable. Some priority has been given to certain high-risk children: This week, vaccinations started for medically fragile students at 12 special schools, including the Meeting Street School, the Groden Center, the Trudeau Center and the Tavares Educational Center.
Additionally, patients of certain specialty clinics at Hasbro Children?s Hospital will be able to get their vaccine at Hasbro instead of the schools or pediatricians? offices. Perhaps as early as Monday, vaccine for children who have undergone organ transplants may be available at Hasbro, Gifford said. Next in line will be children with cystic fibrosis, cancer and congenital heart disease.
But children with more commonplace ailments such as asthma and diabetes will have to wait their turn at school. And most vaccine doses will continue to go to the school clinics.
?We are getting several calls a day from parents who are concerned about their children who have compromised medical status,? says Maura Taylor, administrator of the Children?s Neurodevelopment Center at Hasbro Children?s Hospital, which treats some 3,000 children with neurological impairments, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and other problems. ?We tell parents that all the kids need to be vaccinated. The sooner they can get kids vaccinated, the more control there will be over the virus in the community.?
Taylor has been working with the Health Department to get vaccine for her patients. ?They?ve been very attentive to our program and have been working with us.?
The efforts with the Hasbro clinics probably won?t help Bill Macera?s 7-year-old daughter, who was born with a heart defect that was corrected by surgery. She attends a school in Cranston that will hold its clinic in early December, and Macera worries every day that she?ll get sick before then. Meanwhile, healthy children at the school where Macera works, the Hugh B. Bain Middle School in Cranston, will get vaccinated next week. ?To me it makes no sense,? he says. ?I?m just baffled by it.?
Gifford understands that parents are frustrated and considers stories like Graumann?s and Macera?s ?heart-breaking.? But he believes Rhode Island?s tightly controlled distribution system will provide the greatest good for the greatest number. In other states, vaccine has gone out more chaotically to individual doctors. There have been stories of adults getting the vaccine first, or people pretending to be pregnant or lying that their children had asthma.
Also, Gifford said, ?You gotta remember the child that died the other day ?? she was healthy. What do you tell the parents of the healthy kids?? (A 12-year-old Bristol girl died Monday after coming down with swine flu.)
As for Sarah Graumann, she?s decided to keep Blake home for now. He?ll forgo Sunday school and a gym class that he loves. ?For most parents, this is overreacting,? she says, ?but for us, who?ve already been through so much ? you just don?t want to take that chance.?
Blake Graumann?s pediatrician, Dr. Nathan B. Beraha, wishes he had vaccine for Blake and his other high-risk patients. But he won?t second-guess the Health Department.
?There?s not enough vaccine to go around. There just isn?t,? Beraha says. ?When you?re dealing with population issues versus individual issues, you?re between a rock and a hard place. The Department of Health folks have taken an approach that looks at what?s the best for the population. ? They?re trying to deal with an impossible situation and short resources. And I don?t know that there?s a better way to do it.?
Felice J. Freyer
Journal Medical Writer
Blake Graumann was born with an underdeveloped heart, the left side too small and barely able to pump. In his three years, he?s already had three open-heart surgeries and probably will need a heart transplant someday. If he got the flu, he could end up in the hospital; indeed, he could die.
That?s why Blake?s mother, Sarah, of Providence, is beside herself thinking about healthy schoolchildren lining up next week to get vaccinated against the swine flu ?? when she can?t get vaccine for Blake. She has written letters to health officials and politicians pleading for a change of policy.
?This is such a serious problem. We?ve got to bring some attention to it,? Graumann says. ?I think all the high-risk kids in the state should be getting it first.?
Next week, school-based clinics for swine flu vaccine will begin in Rhode Island. They will continue over 28 days, as vaccine becomes available, in an order randomly generated by computer. All children of school age ?? sick and well ?? can get their vaccine this way. Younger children can get it from their pediatricians, hopefully starting next week.
The purpose of this system, says Health Director David R. Gifford, is to get the vaccine to as many children as possible as quickly as possible, in spite of vaccine supplies that have been late, sporadic and unpredictable. Some priority has been given to certain high-risk children: This week, vaccinations started for medically fragile students at 12 special schools, including the Meeting Street School, the Groden Center, the Trudeau Center and the Tavares Educational Center.
Additionally, patients of certain specialty clinics at Hasbro Children?s Hospital will be able to get their vaccine at Hasbro instead of the schools or pediatricians? offices. Perhaps as early as Monday, vaccine for children who have undergone organ transplants may be available at Hasbro, Gifford said. Next in line will be children with cystic fibrosis, cancer and congenital heart disease.
But children with more commonplace ailments such as asthma and diabetes will have to wait their turn at school. And most vaccine doses will continue to go to the school clinics.
?We are getting several calls a day from parents who are concerned about their children who have compromised medical status,? says Maura Taylor, administrator of the Children?s Neurodevelopment Center at Hasbro Children?s Hospital, which treats some 3,000 children with neurological impairments, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and other problems. ?We tell parents that all the kids need to be vaccinated. The sooner they can get kids vaccinated, the more control there will be over the virus in the community.?
Taylor has been working with the Health Department to get vaccine for her patients. ?They?ve been very attentive to our program and have been working with us.?
The efforts with the Hasbro clinics probably won?t help Bill Macera?s 7-year-old daughter, who was born with a heart defect that was corrected by surgery. She attends a school in Cranston that will hold its clinic in early December, and Macera worries every day that she?ll get sick before then. Meanwhile, healthy children at the school where Macera works, the Hugh B. Bain Middle School in Cranston, will get vaccinated next week. ?To me it makes no sense,? he says. ?I?m just baffled by it.?
Gifford understands that parents are frustrated and considers stories like Graumann?s and Macera?s ?heart-breaking.? But he believes Rhode Island?s tightly controlled distribution system will provide the greatest good for the greatest number. In other states, vaccine has gone out more chaotically to individual doctors. There have been stories of adults getting the vaccine first, or people pretending to be pregnant or lying that their children had asthma.
Also, Gifford said, ?You gotta remember the child that died the other day ?? she was healthy. What do you tell the parents of the healthy kids?? (A 12-year-old Bristol girl died Monday after coming down with swine flu.)
As for Sarah Graumann, she?s decided to keep Blake home for now. He?ll forgo Sunday school and a gym class that he loves. ?For most parents, this is overreacting,? she says, ?but for us, who?ve already been through so much ? you just don?t want to take that chance.?
Blake Graumann?s pediatrician, Dr. Nathan B. Beraha, wishes he had vaccine for Blake and his other high-risk patients. But he won?t second-guess the Health Department.
?There?s not enough vaccine to go around. There just isn?t,? Beraha says. ?When you?re dealing with population issues versus individual issues, you?re between a rock and a hard place. The Department of Health folks have taken an approach that looks at what?s the best for the population. ? They?re trying to deal with an impossible situation and short resources. And I don?t know that there?s a better way to do it.?
